A man whose mother was in the Miami condo that collapsed has said she heard "creaking noises" just one day before the tragedy.
Pablo Rodriguez explained that his mother and grandmother are still missing after the collapse of the 12-story building on Thursday, June 24, CNN reports.
The partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside, Florida, took place at around 1:30 AM on Thursday morning, and Rodriguez's mother and grandmother had been living together in one of the apartments.
Listen to Rodriguez open up about his tragic situation below:Rodriguez explained that he'd received a phone call from his mother the day before the building collapsed to say that she had heard creaking noises that were loud enough to prevent her from sleeping.
"She just told me she had woken up around 3 [or] 4 in the morning and had heard like, some creaking noises," he told CNN. "They were loud enough to wake her."
He explained that he didn't think much about the telling comment as he could have never imagined the tragedy that was about to unfold.
"It was like a comment that she made off-hand like that's why she woke up and she wasn't able to go back to sleep afterward," he told the outlet.
He added: "Now, in hindsight, you always wonder."
In a different interview with USA Today, Rodriguez said that his mother and grandmother are aged 64 and 88, respectively.
Officials said on Friday morning that the official death toll now stands at four, with 159 people from the building currently unaccounted for.
A $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed against the building's condo association on Thursday, June 24, because it had failed to "secure and safeguard" its residents.
It's not yet been established by authorities why the section of the building fell.
The White House announced that President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Florida, which means that federal assistance for disaster relief has now been authorized.
If you would like to help provide relief to the families of the victims and survivors, a GoFundMe has now been set up.
