- The state of emergency includes mostly coastal counties.
- Voluntary evacuations will likely be issued for mobile home residents in the Florida Keys.
- Officials said they could demolish the remains of the collapsed Surfside condo Sunday night.
- Air travelers are being advised to closely monitor their flight status.
Experts at the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, were drilling holes in the building's remains Sunday where charges will be placed and set off to bring the rest of the tower down ahead of any potential impacts from Tropical Storm Elsa.
“As soon as the preparation is ready, the site is secure and the team is ready to go, we will begin the demolition," Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a news briefing Sunday morning.
She didn't give an exact timeline. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Ray Jadallah told families in a separate briefing that the demolition would likely happen Sunday night, the Miami Herald reported. Jadallah had previously said it would probably be sometime Monday.
Elsa is expected to bring gusty winds and heavy rain to much of Florida in the first half of next week, including the Miami area.
(MORE: The Latest Forecast for Elsa)
Floridians in several parts of the state, meanwhile, are being advised to monitor Elsa as tropical storm warnings were issued Sunday for the Florida Keys.
"I think it’s safe to say people are keeping a close eye on it, we hope," Adam Linhardt, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office in Monroe County where the Keys are located, told weather.com in a phone call Sunday afternoon.
"We are telling people to do all those precautions they should normally take."
Linhardt said that includes things like securing boats and outdoor items and topping off vehicle gas tanks.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reminded residents to follow proper generator safety rules in the event of any power outages.
“In the last four years we’ve had more people die from carbon monoxide poisoning than from the direct impacts of the storms, and we’ve had quite a few of them," DeSantis said at the Sunday morning news briefing.
Kevin Guthrie, the state's emergency management director, said people should prepare for extended power outages, especially in areas where there are lots of trees that could be brought down by wind.
Condo Demolition Update
Engineers decided last week that the remains of the collapsed condominium building would need to come down for safety reasons. The timeline for demolition was expedited over fears that winds from Elsa could topple the rest of the building and create more hazardous conditions at the site.
Levine Cava said the top propirity is for the building to come down "as soon as possible and as safely as possible."
Florida-based search and rescue crews were called off the scene so they could return to their home locations and prepare for the storm. They were replaced by teams from several other states.
Levine Cava said officials would resume the search and rescue effort on any sections of the pile that are “safe to access as soon as we are cleared" after the demolition is complete.
But she said work could be halted again if the weather is a threat.
(MORE: Track Elsa Here)
Winds between 10 and 25 mph are forecast in the area Monday into Tuesday, and gusts could be higher in any stronger bands of rain or thunderstorms, weather.com senior digital meteorologist Chris Dolce said Sunday.
The confirmed death toll from the June 24 collapse stands at 24; More than 120 people are still unaccounted for. No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the collapse.
Other Preparations
DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties ahead of the storm. They are: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota.
Local states of emergency were also declared in some areas, including Monroe County in the Florida Keys and Miami-Dade, the state's most populous county.
Aircraft based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa was being flown to a safe location outside the storm's reach, officails there said in an update posted on Facebook Sunday morning. All non-essential personnel were told not to report for duty on Tuesday.
A tweet from the city of Tampa said workers there were preparing for the storm, including lowering levels in retention ponds to help prevent flooding.
(MORE: The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season Pace Is Already Faster Than 2020)
Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said in a news release late Saturday afternoon that mandatory evacuations were not expected, but voluntary evacuations of mobile homes and live-aboard vessels would likely be advised for Monday and Tuesday. Visitors and those in RVs and travel trailers are being asked to consider their travel plans for those two days in order to avoid congestion.
“The last thing we want is a lot of people leaving the Florida Keys on Monday at 11 a.m.,” Gastesi said. “We hope visitors will consider extending their stay through Wednesday, when we are expecting normal summertime conditions to resume, or to leave earlier on Monday to avoid traffic issues in the Upper Keys we normally see after busy holiday weekends.”
In Miami-Dade, emergency workers were checking in with special needs individuals who may require to transport to hospitals if they are dependent on electricity for medical needs.
Emergency Management Director Frank Rollason told weather.com in an email Saturday he didn't expect to open evacuation centers. "We will continue to monitor the storm and adjust our plans as the circumstances dictate," he said.
Officials in Pinellas County advised those who are new to the area to familiarize themselves with evacuation and flood risk zones.
A handful of local governments in the Tampa Bay area opened sandbag stations in anticipation of Elsa's arrival.
The U.S. Coast Guard warned that pleasure craft should seek safe harbor and large ocean-going ships and barges above certain sizes should make plans to leave the ports of Miami and Key West.
The storm is approaching during what is typically one of the busiest travel times of the year, and as travel volume returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Officials at Miami-Dade International Airport advised passengers to closely monitor flight status through their airlines.
Elsa is the fifth named Atlantic storm and first hurricane of the 2021 season. It is the earliest E-named storm on record in the Atlantic.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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