‘This Is The Stuff of Nightmares’: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz Describes The ‘Unimaginable Grief’ at Site of Collapsed Condo in Surfside

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who represents the district where the Champlain South Towers Condominium partially collapsed on Thursday, shared with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer the “unimaginable grief” of the families still hoping their loved ones will be found alive.

Blitzer asked her if she had ever worried about a 12-story condominium building “just going down like this?”

“Never in my worst nightmares,” Wasserman Schultz replied, mentioning how “tight knit” the community was, how so many people came there for their dream vacations or to “live out their retirement years in fun and joy.”

“I can’t tell you the number of friends I have who had family or close friends in the building in the middle of the night when it came crashing down,” she said. “This is the stuff of nightmares.”

Blitzer acknowledged the “awful” situation and asked how people were coping.

“It is unimaginable grief mixed with hope, anxiety, frustration,” Wasserman Schultz said. She also thanked Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for doing “a fantastic job coordinating the efforts,” and had arranged for the families to be able to have the chance to view the site. “Getting them even up close so they can see the magnitude of what they’re dealing with I think is going to help them with either beginning to have some closure or getting some better sense of what we’re facing here.”

The congresswoman added that she had been meeting with these family members and working to help get visas expedited for those who needed to travel from overseas. She had high praise for the international teams who had come to assist the search and rescue efforts. “They are the best of the best.”

Wasserman Schultz told Blitzer that she was still optimistic that they could find more survivors. “As long as [the search and rescue teams are] telling me it’s still possible, I do have hope.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.