Photo: gofundme
Two months after the partialcollapse of the Champlain Towers South condoin Surfside, Florida, a mother and daughter who were among the few to survive the tragedy are sharing their story.
Part of the 12-story high-rise fell in the early morning hours of June 24, killing 98 residents. Taylor Gonzalez — who lived in the building with her mother Angela, sister Deven and father Edgar — wasn’t home at the time of the collapse and feared her family had been killed, she recalled toTODAY.
“They told me that if they were on that side of the building, there wasn’t going to be any survivors,” Taylor, who lived on the ninth floor of the apartment, told the outlet in an interview published Thursday. “So that was a very difficult night.”
Miraculously, Angela and Deven survived the ordeal. Edgar, meanwhile, was listed among those who had died in the tragedy.
“Whoever thinks a building’s going to collapse on you?” Angela said of the nightmarish event.
The Surfside Condo building.Joe Raedle/Getty
“I just screamed, ‘Run!’ We made it maybe right out of our bedroom, maybe a couple steps right out of our bedroom and then the floor just started to cave,” she recalled toTODAY. “It just felt like an earthquake.”
Angela had been watching a movie on television with Edgar just before the building fell, while Deven was in bed.
“I remember Mom yelling, ‘Run!’ and dragging me out of bed,” Deven remembered. “I was half asleep. I thought I was dreaming at that point.”
Surfside condo collapse.Joe Raedle/Getty
“For the first 15 minutes I didn’t hear my mom, I didn’t know where anyone was, and it was me constantly screaming for help,” she toldTODAY.
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“He was my best friend, he was my — my person,” she told the outlet. “So every day, you go to sleep, and then you wake up and your whole life is completely different.”
On July 4, the remainder of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo wasdemolishedand cleared away weeks later. The final victim of the collapse,Estelle Hedaya, who lived inunit 604of the Champlain Towers South condo, wasidentified on July 26.
source: people.com
