Who are the people shifting through the rubble at the Surfside building collapse?
The disaster in Surfside has drawn emergency crews from across Florida. The number on the ground is equal to what was deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane that devastated the Panhandle in 2018, the state fire marshal said. This is the largest ever deployment of task force resources in the history of the state of Florida thats not a hurricane, said Floridas Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis during a news conference Monday morning. The same number of men and women that are on the ground right now is the same that was deployed to Hurricane Michael, which was a 12-county storm event, he said. Theyre working around the clock, 12 hours at a time, midnight to noon, noon to midnight.  All eight Florida Urban Search and Rescue task force teams, about 370 people, are assisting in the rescue and recovery efforts in Surfside, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. They include the Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue team, two groups known around the world for their lifesaving efforts. The team is composed of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel and outside specialists, and is divided into groups including command, rescue, search, medical and planning. The team also has nine FEMA-certified canine groups, each with one handler and one search dog. Florida Urban Search and Rescue teams probe for life through the rubble of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South Condo on the fourth day of recovery efforts, in the Surfside community of Miami Beach, Florida, on Sunday, June 27, 2021. The 12-story oceanfront condo tower at 8777 Collins Ave. crumpled just after 1:30 a.m., on Thursday June 24, trapping an unknown number of residents asleep in their beds inside the wreckage. Daniel A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com  The other task forces are from throughout the state, including Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Tallahassee and Ocala. Theres also teams of search-and-rescue specialists from Israel and Mexico. Crews are using heavy equipment such as cranes, excavators and nibblers, dogs, cameras, sonar and infrared technology. They come and they leave their families. They come to work around the clock. Their reward is the lives they save, Patronis said. Some of the K-9s searching the rubble are trained to find survivors. Others are trained to find the dead. Counseling, housing and other aid  Other departments and agencies are assisting in aid efforts.  The Florida Department of Transportation is providing additional excavators, dump trucks and front-end loaders to help crews search through the debris.  The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is providing traffic control in the area.  The Florida Department of Health is coordinating with the Miami Poison Control Center to review personal protective equipment and respond to potentially public health hazards.  The American Red Cross, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and Catholic Charities are assisting displaced residents and those who are waiting to find out about missing loved ones. This includes helping them with temporary housing and mental health and spiritual health counseling.  The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has a mobile unit to help people complete housing assistance applications and coordinate other resources for businesses impacted by the search and rescue operation.  Hatzalah of South Florida is working with pharmacies to ensure anyone affected by the collapse still has access to their medications, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.