The president said chances were fading that anyone else would be found alive under the mass of concrete and steel left by a collapsed condominium.

President Biden spent three hours Thursday consoling the families of those who died or were still missing under the rubble of a collapsed condominium building near Miami Beach, saying “the waiting is unbearable” for agonized relatives as crews halted a desperate search for much of the day out of concern that the rest of the complex could also fall.

In remarks after the private meeting, which was held in a hotel ballroom, Mr. Biden said the families were “going through hell.” Many have been waiting for more than a week for word about whether anyone might still be alive under the concrete and steel.

“I sat with one woman who had just lost her husband and her little baby boy, didn’t know what to do,” the president said. “I sat with another family that lost almost the entire family, cousins, brothers, sisters. And to watch them, and they’re praying and pleading and God let there be a miracle.”

For Mr. Biden, confronting the largest national tragedy since he took office was complicated by the fact that he could not eulogize those who were still unaccounted for, or hold out much hope for the missing. “They know that the chances are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly,” the president said. “But at a minimum, at a minimum, they want to recover the bodies. They want to recover the bodies.”

Eighteen people are known to have died in the collapse of Champlain Towers South, and as many as 145 people remain missing, numbers th­at have remained unchanged since Wednesday.

The president arrived in Florida hours after rescue workers were pulled off the debris pile amid concern that the rest of the building might fall. Although the search resumed hours later, the delay was another setback for a search that for days had proceeded slowly and without hopeful news.
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