Local News

A Man is searching for his mother and grandmother in Surfside

Surfside, Florida – Last week, Pablo Rodriguez was planning to meet with his mother and grandmother.
“The night before it happened, we made plans for them to pick up my son and buy him a bicycle,” Rodriguez said.
That was just hours before the Champlain Towers South in Surfside collapsed.
His mother, 64-year-old Elena Blasser, lived on the 11th floor, in apartment 1211. Her mother, 88-year-old Elena Chavez, was also staying at the apartment.
Both of them are still unaccounted for.
He’ll never forget the last phone call he had with his mother that has stuck with him.
“In that conversation, she mentioned she heard some loud cracking around 3, 4 in the morning — hearing noises from the building and couldn’t go back to sleep,” he said.
“It was loud enough to mention, which is the point that sticks in my head, why we didn’t pay more attention to that,” he said.
Blasser would often complain to him about maintenance issues in the building, he said.
As crews approach the seventh day of searching through the rubble for possible survivors, Rodriguez is calling for accountability.
“I love them and we will never forget them,” he said. “I’m not going to let this go … make sure people responsible be held responsible.”
He’s struggling to explain the tragedy to his six-year-old son, who keeps asking for his grandmother, Rodriguez said.
“He keeps asking, why can’t we FaceTime? Why can’t we call the people to find them faster?” he said.
Rodriguez hopes crews can recover something so he can give his loved ones a proper burial.
“Get closure on that front,” he said.

Lowell Bowen

From the time he was 8 years old Lowell knew he wanted to be on TV. Well, as people say one thing leads to another, that's how Lowell started his career in the news industry. Lowell has been part of The South Florida Daily since the very beginning.

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