ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) -The U.S. federal government is sending more emergency officials on Thursday to support search-and-rescue efforts at the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, according to the White House.
They said five urban search-and-rescue teams of 80 people each will be on the ground at the ruins of the Champlain Towers South condo, with two more teams on standby to relieve them.
New personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were sent at the request of local officials, according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, who briefed reporters traveling with President Joe Biden to the city where the tower collapsed.
FEMA had already deployed 60 staff to Florida as of 6 a.m. on Thursday (1000 GMT) and had sent additional funding to local emergency officials in Florida on Wednesday evening, according to Jean-Pierre.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
