At the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site, today is day five and likely the last day of rescue mode operations. New Orleans Fire Chief Tim McConnell says they have not had a detection of life since Sunday morning from any of the dogs searching the rubble.
“We sweep the building every day, several times a day, concentrating where they find individuals. We are at over 72 hours now without a live hit. We are very close to transitioning from rescue mode to recovery,” said McConnell.
DNA was recently found at the scene but was matched with another body recovered on Saturday. McConnell says the transition to recovery mode means reducing the risk to responders take at the site as further collapse is likely.
“Going from saying you’ll risk a life to save a life, you can’t say the same about recovery, but I want to assure everyone we will take every action to recover the remains for these families,” said McConnell.
McConnell says the chance of survival of the remaining missing construction worker drops significantly if there is no indication of a live person by tonight. McConnell believes they have a good idea of where bodies can be found.
“We’ll begin to pick through debris where we know one to be and the other is pretty much 99 percent we believe him to be, to be able to pick through that debris and get to them and get these families some closure,” said McConnell.
Two people are confirmed dead as a result of Saturday morning’s collapse.
