Hope Dims in Race to Find Man in Collapsed Florida Garage
By: Administrator
Updated: October 11, 2012
Miami Dade Police officials told ABC News their mission has shifted from search and rescue to recovery.
Searchers at the garage at Miami-Dade Community College's west campus in Doral, Fla., worked feverishly overnight delicately picking through the rubble in a race to find the last missing person, Robert Budhoo, an electrical contractor whose family says has still not answered his phone.
"He's the best dad in the world," his daughter Tasha Bagwandeen said through tears. "We need you guys to find him, please."
Overnight, rescuers pulled construction worker Juan Samuel from the pancaked layers of the parking garage, after he spent 12 hours buried beneath five floors of collapsed concrete. Samuel was raced out on a stretcher just after 1 a.m. He was in "extremely critical condition" as transport by helicopter to a trauma center was being arranged, the Associated Press reported.Samuels was found buried waist-deep inside his truck, and workers were forced to amputate his legs to save his life, authorities said.
Hours earlier on Wednesday, firefighters squeezed between steel beams to save another man who had also been pinned. Police say at least 12 contractors were working on the new garage at the college when it collapsed around noon Wednesday.
Chris Morel told ABC News that he was there to witness the collapse and ensuing chaos.
"I was able to see the last floor just crumble down and I just saw smoke coming up and people just running around," he said.
Two bodies have now been recovered and seven survivors are hospitalized. Meanwhile Robert Budhoo's family waits and prays that he is found alive.
"We need prayers ... because I believe in miracles," his wife Laurel Budhoo said. "I believe in miracles."
Ground was broken on the $22.5 million project in February, and the 1,855-space garage was to be finished in December, according to Ajax's website.
No students injured in collapse. The college's campus will stay closed for the remainder of the week.
It wasn't immediately clear what caused the collapse of the partially-finished structure.
