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President Biden is heading to Florida Thursday as search and rescue efforts at the Champlain Towers South condo building collapse site enter their second week, with 18 confirmed dead and 145 still unaccounted for.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden are set to meet with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other local officials in Surfside.
They then will meet with first responders and search and rescue teams before visiting the families of those still awaiting word on the status of their loved ones.
State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis said he hopes to convey to Biden the need for mental health resources for rescue workers who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“These guys are so blindly focused on the mission of saving lives, and unfortunately they see things they can’t unsee,” Patronis said.
“We want to make sure that when they ultimately do go home, that we’re giving them the strength … to be able to get back to work without fear of nightmares and challenges,” he added.
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Among the remains found Wednesday were those of a mother and her two young daughters, a loss that Mayor Levine-Cava called “too great to bear.”
Miami-Dade police identified the children as 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara, and their mother as 42-year-old Anaely Rodriguez. The remains of their father, Marcus Guara, 52, were pulled from the rubble Saturday and identified Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.