A Filipino-American who loved to play the piano and her Chilean husband lived on the 10th floor of the building. One flight down were Cuban …
A Filipino-American who loved to play the piano and her Chilean husband lived on the 10th floor of the building. One flight down were Cuban immigrant grandparents who had dreamed of retiring at the beach. And just a week ago, a young Paraguayan arrived to work as a nanny. The Champlain Towers South condominium was a true reflection of Miami ’s international mix—South American immigrants, Orthodox Jews, foreign retirees. The 12-story building’s stunning collapse on Thursday quickly became a symbol of international tragedy, as families around the world hoped for news of loved ones in a terrified state of limbo. Among them is Richard Luna, who is praying for a miracle but already speaking of his sister in the past tense. Lady Vanessa Luna Villalba, a nanny newly come from rural Paraguay, is among the 159 people still missing in the disintegration of the condominium into a smoldering heap of twisted metal and concrete in Surfside, Florida, just north of Miami. “She had many hopes of progressing and helping our parents,” said Richard Luna, who is anxiously watching news reports in Paraguay. “We are emotionally devastated.” A child of farmers, the 23-year-old Luna had studied nursing, but was looking after the three children of a Paraguayan family who helped her get a passport. The children are also missing along with their parents, Sophia López Moreira Bó and Luis Pettengil, the sister- and brother-in-law of the president of Paraguay. The first lady planned to fly to Miami. Officials on Friday still didn’t know exactly how many residents or visitors were in the building at the time. A clearer picture emerged from diplomatic dispatches and overseas news reports: Israeli media said the country’s consul general in Miami, Maor Elbaz, believed that 20 citizens of that country are missing. Another 22 people were unaccounted for from Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Paraguay. By Friday evening, authorities had helped family members from over a dozen countries get visas to travel to Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio said in a tweet. The horror of seeing hard-to-watch video of the tower’s collapse was compounded by the shock of its location: America. “You don’t think that can happen here in the United States,” said Sergio Lozano Jr., whose grandparents Antonio and Gladys Lozano, both in their 80s, are among the missing. The couple emigrated from Cuba years ago, and the elder Lozano, now retired, worked in banking. Until a day ago, they were living out their dream in unit 903 of the seaside tower. “My grandfather always said when he retired, he wanted to retire on the beach,” said Lozano Jr. “He wanted to be able to walk out on his balcony and look at the beach.” Their son, Lozano Jr’s father, lived just two buildings away. On Thursday night, the family ate dinner together. Lozano Jr. said his father woke up at 1:30 in the morning to a thundering noise that sounded like a tornado and went to his balcony to bring in the outdoor furniture.
