Almost three days have passed since part of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Miami, tumbled to the ground within just seconds. Local community activist Rabbi Yona Lunger spoke with Arutz Sheva, describing the ongoing rescue efforts.
“Most of the building’s apartments were owned by Jews,” Lunger told us. “Most had mezuzot on the doors. But the fact that this disaster happened now, as well as during the summer, means that a far greater disaster was averted. If it had been a year ago this time, the building would have been filled with Jews from New York fleeing the coronavirus regulations, and if it had been last winter, there would have been hundreds of Jews in the building.”
Lunger stressed that despite what people know, or think they know, nobody should be publicizing names of people thought missing, until there is official confirmation. “There are dozens of Jews missing, but it’s not clear that they were actually in the building at the time of its collapse. People should definitely not be publicizing any names. I personally know a widow who lives in New York and she had no idea that her son and his wife had traveled to Florida on vacation. She only found out from what someone posted, when she saw his name, and it hit her really hard. She’s on her way here right now.”
Rabbi Lunger noted the incredible response of the Jewish community and the sense of mutual responsibility being shown. “At a time of terrible tragedy that hits us, we all stand together trying to support one another, the entire Jewish People from all over the world, everyone trying to do whatever he can to help,” he said. “So many volunteers have arrived here from all over the United States, but they’re not being allowed into the disaster area at the present moment,” he added. “All we can do right now is pray and hope for miracles. Our goal right now, unfortunately, is to do what we can to protect the honor of the deceased, and that’s a very complicated business.”
Asked to comment on the nature of the rescue work, Rabbi Lunger noted the extreme difficulty of the circumstances. “The volunteers are working very, very hard, in unimaginable conditions. It’s incredibly difficult going, step by step. They’ve brought in advanced machinery and we’re all praying that they’re still going to manage to rescue people.”
A large number of people have also been evacuated from their homes, and they, together with relatives of those missing, all have to be housed somewhere. “We have rented two hotels,” Rabbi Lunger says, “one for people who have been arriving from elsewhere, relatives of those who are missing, and the other for local residents who have been evacuated from the neighboring building and the one next to it. You can appreciate that people really don’t want to stay in their homes until they know exactly what happened here and are reassured that the area is safe. In addition, there are hundreds of Jews who have vacation homes in the area that they use primarily in the winter – some of them really luxurious places right on the ocean – and they’re calling up one after the other, begging us to open their homes to people who have no place to go. Mi ke’amcha Yisrael.”
Rabbi Shalom Ber Lipsker, the local Chabad shaliach (emissary), who is also working intensively doing everything he can to help, insisted that all hope was not lost, quoting the words of the Torah: “Even if a sharp sword is placed on your neck, do not despair of the mercy of G-d. We’re still looking for survivors,” he stressed, “and waiting for miracles.”