Israel’s Consul-General in Miami, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, spoke with Arutz Sheva about rescue efforts in Surfside, and the impact Israel’s search and rescue team has had during its deployment in Florida.
“My team coordinates all the activities with the families and local authorities, with the media,” Elbaz-Starinsky said.
“Our taskforce is on the ground, operating day and night, shoulder to shoulder with the American forces. Amazingly, our team, which is composed of only eight people – we have 15 until this week – is one of the leaders of this search effort because of our innovating methodology, which the Americans found very useful – so much so that they’re trying to adopt it.”
Why is the recovery work so slow?
“Tomorrow we will mark two weeks since the collapse. One has to understand that this was a dramatic collapse. Even the search and rescue experts, both from Israel and America, testify that this is one of the hardest events that they have ever been to. And they’ve been to disaster sites all over the world.”
“In professional terms it is called a ‘pancake collapse’. The floor just crushed one another, and the outer walls just covered it in thousands of tons of concrete and blocks, which requires lots of time to remove. And it took a lot of time to figure out the right methodology.”
How do people relate to the Israeli delegation?
“The acceptance of the Israeli team and support in general is astonishing, how glad people are to see us.”
“The soldiers there going in their uniforms is a source of pride not only for Israel, but Jews and people in general.”
Turning to the victims’ families and the community in Surfside as a whole, Elbazy-Starinsky said the disaster has brought people together, but added that it will take “a long, long time for the community to recover.”
“But the amount of support they are giving each other and getting is something that we can admire. This is astonishing and a source of pride for me as an Israeli and a Jew.”