Family Members Hope, Pray For Good News In Surfside Building Collapse
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The list and pictures of those unaccounted for continues to grow. Both online and near the site of the rubble.
Of the missing, a young couple Ilan Naibryf and Deborah Berezdivin. Both just 21 years old. The couple was in town for a funeral.
"He is a great kid. We don't need to go through what we're going through," said Carlos Naibryf, Ilan Naibryf's dad.
"We are the families that are missing people or that have not heard from them," said Ronit Felszer, Ilan's mom.
Ilan's parents tell CBS4 their son is a smart, athletic young man getting ready to start his own business.
"He was starting his own start-up (crying) hiring his first four guys. Already funded. And this just happened. (Inaudible) he slept there just to be closer to the funeral the day after," said Carlos.
He says the unit his son was staying in was on the southeast corner.
"If you see the video, it's like very slim chances to have people alive."
"We hope for a miracle. But do we really have faith? We don't know," said Ronit.
CBS4's Lisa Petrillo spoke with a family member of Deborah Berezdivin.
Have you heard anything at all?
Rebecca Wasserstein said, "Not really.. not really… (crying) it's a sad situation. We never thought we were going to be in."
Many like Rebecca are here at the reunification center supporting family. Some are here giving DNA samples to help identify loved ones.
"I'm here to support my family. Support my brother. To support my niece. And to have the hope to see if they find her alive," adds Wasserstein.
As the hours tick by, hope is waning. Of the missing, are Claudio and Maria Obias Bonnefoy who were in apartment 1001. Their niece landed in South Florida at 6 a.m. Thursday for a visit when she heard the news.
"When I arrived at the baggage claim, my sister texted me that my aunt's building collapsed. I thought it was surreal that her building collapsed," said Bettina Obias.
"I'm not a very dramatic person or cry very easy. But when I saw it I screamed and cried because I know that they were gone."
Frustrations are growing with the search efforts, Mike Silber is waiting on Word on three family members. He tried to help in the search but was turned away.
Silber tells CBS he was at the site for 17 straight hours and captured images of the recovery effort.
"I've been told by the chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue that it's too dangerous for them to work on that hill because they're worried that the building is going to collapse," said Silber.
He joins a long list of others waiting in silence with few updates from officials.
"What you tell us that's the news that we're getting. We've been DNA'd so we're waiting," Felszer said.
Maggie Castro from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue told CBS 4 over the phone why the search is so tedious.
"A lot of times, it seems like, for people observing that maybe not a lot is happening but there's times if we hear a noise everything needs to quiet down. So we can pinpoint where that noise is coming from so that we can focus our energies into that area."
Officials say the recovery effort is a very methodical one and updates are given to the families twice a day.
