US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Miami, Florida on Thursday to visit the site of the 12-storybuilding which collapsed last week and meet with the families of the victims and missing persons from the disaster.
A large part of the Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium building in Surfside, collapsed early last Friday morning. The death toll from the collapse currently stands at 18 after six more bodies were pulled from the wreckage yesterday. 145 people are still missing.
Biden said at a briefing after he landed that he wanted the federal government to cover the cost of the recovery and rescue operations for the first 50 days.
“I want to pick up 100% of the cost from the county and the state over the first 30 days," Biden said.