Page 28 - bon-dia-aruba-20210727

A28 u.s. news
Diamars 27 Juli 2021

Last victim ID'd in Florida condo building collapse

the painstaking and emotionally heavy task of re- voy of firetrucks and other vehicles, slowly driving
moving layers of dangerous debris and pulling out to their headquarters. The fire chief saluted their
dozens of bodies. bravery, saying they had worked 12-hour shifts
while camping out at the site and also dealing with
“She always mentioned God anytime she was strug- the heavy emotional burden.
gling with anything,” he said. “She had reached a
different level spiritually, which allowed her to ex- Linda March, a 58 year-old attorney and fellow for-
cel in all other areas.” mer New Yorker, was close friends with Hedaya.
Oddly the two were the last three victims to be
Her brother said he is drawing strength from God, identified, along with 24-year-old Anastasia Gro-
just as he’d seen his sister do in troubling times. A mova of Canada.
funeral was scheduled for Tuesday.
Leah Sutton, who knew Hedaya since birth and
The site of the June 24 collapse at the oceanside considered herself a second mother to her, said she
Champlain Towers South has been mostly swept and March were both “forces to be reckoned with.”
flat, the rubble moved to a Miami warehouse. Al-
though forensic scientists are still at work, includ- “My two beautiful amazing fearless friends saved
ing examining the debris at the warehouse, au- for last, have to believe there was a reason for them
thorities said there are no more bodies to be found to be last,” she said Monday. “Estelle’s love of God
where the building once stood. was unbelievable and unwavering.”

(AP) — The final victim of the condo build- In the end, crews found no evidence that anyone The dead included members of the area’s large Or-
ing collapse in Florida has been identified, a who was found dead had survived the initial col- thodox Jewish community, the sister of Paraguay’s
relative said Monday, more than a month af- lapse, Fire Chief Alan Cominsky has said. first lady, her family and their nanny, along with an
ter the middle-of-the-night catastrophe that entire family of four that included a local salesman,
ultimately claimed 98 lives. Search teams spent weeks battling the hazards of his wife and their two young daughters, 4 and 11,
the rubble, including an unstable portion of the who were buried in the same coffin.
Estelle Hedaya, an outgoing 54-year-old with a building that teetered above, a recurring fire and
love of travel, was the last victim identified, end- Florida’s stifling summer heat and thunderstorms. Meanwhile, it’s unclear what will happen at the
ing what her relatives described as a torturous four- They went through more than 14,000 tons (13,000 collapse site. A judge presiding over several law-
week wait. metric tonnes) of broken concrete and rebar before suits filed in the collapse aftermath wants the prop-
finally declaring the mission complete. erty sold at market rates, which would bring in
Her younger brother, Ikey Hedaya, confirmed the an estimated $100 million or more. Some condo
identification to The Associated Press. The news Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s urban search-and-res- owners want to rebuild, and others say a memorial
comes just days after rescuers officially concluded cue team pulled away from the site Friday in a con- should be erected to remember the dead.

California, NYC to require employees to get COVID-19 vaccine

(AP) - California and care employees starting next ministration to get on board then land in the United King- ing to CDC data. The 7-day
New York City announced month. And President Joe with this. What we’re doing dom, Israel and other highly rolling average on Sunday
Monday that they would Biden said all doctors work- is not working. Doing more vaccinated nations with force was about 583,000 vaccina-
require all government ing in Department of Veter- of the same is not the answer last month. tions a day, up from about
employees to get the coro- ans Affairs facilities will have here.” 525,000 a week prior.
navirus vaccine or face to be inoculated. Jha said the nation has to
weekly COVID-19 testing The White House has so far brace for another rough few Public health experts on
as officials raced to beat Elsewhere, St. Louis be- deferred to the Centers for months. The disease has Monday said the uptick in
back a summer surge driv- came the second major city Disease Control and Preven- killed almost 611,000 people vaccinations is encouraging
en by the delta variant. to mandate that face masks tion on masking guidance, in the U.S. since the pan- but warned that it’s far too
be worn indoors, regardless which recommends that demic started last year. early to say if the numbers
Meanwhile, in a possible sign of vaccination status, joining those who are unvaccinated mean that millions of un-
that increasingly dire health Los Angeles in re-imposing wear masks indoors. But of- “For much of winter, spring, vaccinated people are finally
warnings are getting through the orders. ficials acknowledged over I was VERY optimistic we’d beginning to overcome their
to more Americans, vaccina- the weekend that they are have a great summer with reticence.
tion rates began to creep up Dr. Leana Wen, a former Bal- considering changing that few infections, deaths,” he
again, offering hope that the timore health commissioner, guidance and recommending wrote. “But (the) situation The U.S. is around 67%
nation could yet break free applauded the moves but that the vaccinated also wear has clearly turned worse.” immune from COVID-19
of the coronavirus if people called on Biden to “lead by masks indoors. when prior infections are fac-
who have been reluctant to example” and impose simi- Vaccinations ticked up over tored, but it will need to get
receive the shot are finally in- lar mandates on federal em- “We’re going in the wrong the weekend, with about closer to 85% to crush the re-
oculated. ployees and in public venues direction,” Dr. Anthony 657,000 vaccines adminis- surgent virus, said Dr. Ashish
where the government has Fauci, the nation’s top infec- tered Saturday and nearly Jha, dean of Brown Universi-
In New York City, Mayor jurisdiction, like on planes, tious disease expert, said on 780,000 on Sunday, accord- ty’s School of Public Health.
Bill de Blasio announced that trains and government build- CNN’s State of the Union
all municipal workers — in- ings. on Sunday.
cluding teachers and police
officers — will be required She also said all hospitals Wen, who is also an emer-
to get vaccinated by mid- and nursing homes need to gency physician and public
September or face weekly require all employees get professor at George Wash-
COVID-19 testing, making vaccinated, an idea that the ington University, said pub-
the city one of the largest American Medical Associa- lic health experts have been
employers in the U.S. to take tion voiced support for in a worrying for months about
such action. statement Monday. this very scenario.

California said it will simi- “We need vaccine mandates Ko said the U.S. should not
larly require proof of vacci- and vaccine verification,” have been caught off guard
nation or weekly testing for Wen said. “We’re well past after watching the delta vari-
all state workers and health the time for the Biden ad- ant ravage India in May and