This is "Facing South Florida" with Jim DeFede.
Good morning.
I'm Jim DeFede and welcome to "Facing South Florida".
This week here in Surfside,
we saw the grim yet inevitable move from rescue to recovery.
As it became clear that no one else was going
to be pulled miraculously alive from the pile.
It will still take weeks to clear the rubble
and find the remains of those missing.
And even then not everyone will be identified.
Since the beginning of this tragedy,
there has been one constant,
the twice daily briefings by Miami Dade Mayor,
Daniella Levine Cava.
This was not the job she envisioned when she ran
for mayor last year,
but it is one she has grown into quickly.
We sat down recently to talk about the pain and the sorrow
of the past few weeks.
How did you first learn about this disaster
and what were you told?
I'm assuming you were awakened by a phone call?
So I wake up at six o'clock every morning
and just as I was waking up,
the call was coming in from the Chief of Police.
And what did he tell you at 6:00 am?
He told me that a building had collapsed
and that they were rescuing people from that building.
Did you have a sense for how bad
it was going to be at that moment?
No, no.
Obviously, a building collapsing,
a 12 story building collapsing is not good news ever.
Honestly, I went immediately to Google
and found a "Jerusalem Post" article
that had some more detail,
and so of course I was in shock.
And came up here to be on the scene.
By the time I got here so much was already in play.
My job was to make sure that there were no barriers.
There were no barriers to the men and women
who are so good at emergency.
Who have been down this road before.
Making sure that they had everything they needed
to get the job done.
When you arrive on scene,
what do you see?
You know, the morning was a blur,
I have to say.
Obviously, I'm in disbelief.
I'm checking out exactly what's going on with the operation.
I'm informed that,
about all the people that had been rescued of course.
And they were already in the pile.
They're in the rubble.
And they're explaining to me what's going on on the site.
What was your first reaction
when you finally saw the pile?
This site was like Armageddon, something unimaginable.
What I had seen in the news,
the photo that I had seen did not do it justice.
To see 12 stories of a building collapse,
pancake style on itself and to see people on the mound,
beginning this horrific search really took my breath away.
Your first instinct is to wanna go be with the families?
If I could have done, I would have done,
but that was not my job.
My job was to make sure that everything was being done
for everybody in this disaster possible.
So of course I wanted to go see where the families
were being temporarily housed,
how we were taking care of their needs,
how we were doing the intake process
to find out who they were.
Helping them to make sense, which there is no sense.
And shortly after I got to this,
the family reunification center,
within minutes of my being there,
I received a call from President Biden.
I had been with him the day before in Washington
for a meeting around gun violence.
And now he was calling me to say how could he help?
And the families were just in despair.
And so my immediate thought
was bring in the calvary to help.
And we have experience with bringing in the calvary,
Hurricane Andrew certainly comes to mind.
And so I said, we need FEMA.
That is what we got right away, FEMA.
So when you first start meeting the families,
those who were trying to figure out what's going on,
what do you tell them?
What do you say to them?
These families were in disbelief
and angry, seeking answers,
not understanding why their loved ones could not be
with them immediately.
Why they couldn't be rescued right at the moment.
They had not been to the site.
They didn't see yet the enormity of this catastrophe.
And again, without seeing it,
it's really hard to understand how minuscule
the chances of survival were.
This couldn't have been what you envisioned being mayor
was going to be like,
because you came in knowing about COVID
and that was going to be a major crisis
you were going to have to deal with?
You then had a series of mass shootings,
which took you to the White House just the day before,
and now this.
Miami Dad County has had so many challenges.
I ran for mayor because I thought I
could handle these challenges.
This particular challenge, no.
Never in my wildest nightmares,
but I know that we are going to continue to have
to deal with all kinds of crises.
And so in that sense, I kicked into gear.
So you never thought to yourself,
I did not sign up for this.
This is- Oh no.
This is not the job.
I wanted to go cut some ribbons.
Do some some nice things.
This is- No, sir.
No sir.
I came to this job to do the hard work of leading
a community through difficult times.
We have sea level rise, climate change,
storms that are going to come
with increasing frequency, Zika.
I started to run before there was a pandemic
and I stayed.
I knew this.
So I know that as mayor,
there's going to be a lot of disaster,
and I signed up for it.
What's the hardest moment been so far
through this Surfside crisis?
Talking with the families is really the hardest part
of this job.
Could be my children, could be any one of our children,
our grandparents, and sisters, or best friends.
We do all know people in the building,
and it's just, it's inconsolable.
What do you say to me people who want to know why?
Why them?
It's, it's impossible, impossible.
Is there, is there one group interaction
that stands out in your mind that will live on for you?
That you had?
In other words, is there one interaction that you had
with a family member that still haunts you?
There have been so many of those moments.
There was a moment which I broke down in tears myself.
A young man who has been inconsolable for answers
with his friend,
and the two of them consoling each other.
And just the,
the despair.
The despair.
Truly and being with them.
I mean, as we're sitting here talking,
these don't trucks are going by.
They are being brought in to gather up the rubble,
take it somewhere so it can be analyzed,
but basically this is, in many ways,
these don't trumps are like hearses.
Carrying off the remains to some extent
of those who died here.
It's-
(Daniella sighs) So for example, I had to decide,
where were we gonna put that evidentiary debris?
I had to decide what company was going to truck that debris.
The way that this is being treated is like holy ground.
A rabbi, referred to it,
said the pile has the same significance
to this community as the Shul or the Temple in this area
that so many belong to.
It is, it's a site of reverence,
and that is how the people on pile treat it.
And that is how we treat everything
that comes off that pile.
So if this is the site of reverence,
I know that there will be those
who will make determinations later,
you'll probably be part of that.
Look, what do you want to see done with this land?
Should there ever be another building put on this land
or should this be turned into a park or memorial?
What do you wanna see happen?
I definitely want there to be a way that
this site is remembered for what happened here
and to do honor to those who lost their lives
and also the human frailty that led to this collapse.
What do you mean by the human frailty
that led to this collapse?
This could have and should have been avoided,
and we are gonna make sure it never happens again.
See I've heard you,
I've heard other politicians say,
we will never allow this to happen again.
Now Mayor, you can't honestly make that guarantee.
Jim, there is a lot that we've learned
from this tragedy.
People are all over it from an engineering perspective,
from a leadership and accountability perspective.
Just like Hurricane Andrew when we made sure
that buildings did not collapse from the wind.
We will find a way to make sure that whatever led
to this collapse, doesn't repeat.
You're out here every day at about 7:00 am?
Yeah, yes sir.
And you leave around what time?
8:00 pm.
When you go home, when you sit down,
after 13, 14 hours,
however long it is out here and you're alone
with your thoughts.
Where did they turn?
Well, I have been haunted by images of people
in the rubble, in the pile.
I go over and over in my mind.
Watching people searching, searching, digging.
It's a very, very powerful image.
And I am really focused on what is happening here.
But Madame Mayor, you're human.
And we saw the other day during one
of the press conferences you had to hold it together.
Have you cried a lot during these last 14, 15, 16 days?
You know, Jim, I cry.
I cry.
I hug, a lot of hugs.
I get a lot of hugs.
Yesterday, I attended a concert and it created a space
for just sitting with those feelings,
which I've really not had a chance to do,
because I am working until I fall asleep
and from the moment I wake up.
And it's very, and we are working,
not just for me,
but for all of these people so affected,
especially those who are pulling bodies out of the rubble.
We know the toll that it's taking on them.
And we really need to find a path to help the people.
When do you think it's gonna hit you
what happened out here?
'Cause I don't think it's hit you yet,
the enormity of it.
When does that come?
Jim, it's in me.
I feel it, I feel it.
For sure every moment when I'm busy doing my work
from the moment I awake until the moment I go to sleep,
I'm busy doing what needs to be done.
Well you said earlier, you're haunted.
You used the word haunted by those who could be in the pile.
How does that express itself?
Does it?
Do you have nightmares?
Do you mean, you're giving me a look like,
but I mean, how does it?
How does it express itself when you say
you're haunted by it?
This is for me a lifetime experience
that will guide what I do from here on out.
Everything about this is a building block for something
that I feel called upon to fix.
So how we deal with victims, how we deal with survivors,
how we work across jurisdictions,
how we communicate with the public,
how we create a common purpose.
My career, last major milestone, was Hurricane Andrew.
I was running the child welfare system at the time.
And I feel that I learned so much from that tragedy,
with what went wrong and what did not,
and it has guided my actions ever since.
And this is the next big milestone for me.
When we come back, we'll turn our attention to Haiti,
stay with us.