Joe Biden is now meeting with the families of the missing and dead in Surfside, CNN reports. He is scheduled to spend several hours with them.

"The president and the first lady will meet with the families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy, offer them comfort during this unimaginable, difficult time," White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier.

"Our hearts go out to these families," Biden tweeted.

As we've been reporting, rescue teams halted their search efforts over fears about the stability of the remaining parts of the building.

When the Champlain Tower collapsed, it came down in stages, leaving a large part of the building still standing.

Eight days on, the site is still a massive heap of crumbled concrete and mangled metal, with children's toys and other personal belongings strewn about.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

If you are just joining us now, here's the latest from Florida.

• President Joe Biden is in Surfside, meeting with officials and family members of those who have been missing since the Champlain Towers South collapse one week ago
• Biden met Florida's Republican Governor Ron Desantis. The two men praised the spirit of co-operation
• Biden also met with the rescue crews, who are working in 12-hour shifts on the rubble pile known as "the mound"
• Later he is due to meet with the family members of victims and survivors, and deliver remarks to the press
• Search operations at the site are temporarily paused, due to dangers presented by what's left of the unstable building
• More stormy weather is also forecast, which could lead to further delays
• Almost 150 people remain missing, and the death toll rose to 18 on Wednesday

Anguished families are continuing an agonising wait for information about their loved ones following the collapse of the Champlain Tower apartment complex. Eighteen people have been confirmed dead and 145 others are still missing.

Below is a graphic showing where the known victims lived in the tower.

Read more: What do we know about the victims?

As investigators hunt for clues about what might have caused the apartment block to collapse, it's emerged that most of the housing complex's board resigned in 2019 amid a debate over repairs, The Washington Post reports., external

A majority of the Champlain Towers board, including its president, decided to quit following disputes over the sluggish response to tackling the repairs the block needed, the paper says.

A 2018 inspection warned of the building's "major" design flaws and urged that repairs be carried out in "a timely fashion".

The Post reports the board's head blamed frustration that repairs were not being carried out because of debates over the cost. She also cited problems with the working of the board.

Image source, Getty Images

President Biden has met with the crews working to rescue victims from the rubble.

He described the night a car crash killed his wife and daughter, and how firefighters tried to free his family from the smoking wreckage.

"What you're doing now is just hard as hell - even psychologically - to deal with. I just want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"I really appreciate what you do," he continued.

"I promise you, we know what you're doing here is incredible."

He adds that he feels for them, and their struggle "having to deal with the uncertainty, and worrying about the families."

"Be careful," Biden said.

Image source, Reuters

At the command briefing in Surfside, Biden was flanked by Governor DeSantis, a Republican, and Mayor Levine Cava, a Democrat.

"You know what’s good about this?" he said as he paused the session. "It lets the nation know we can co-operate. That’s really important."

"This is life and death," he added. "Just the simple act of everybody doing what needs to be done."

Earlier in the session, Governor DeSantis had praised the president. "You recognised the severity of this tragedy from day one and you’ve been very supportive," he told Biden.

Image source, Reuters

Rescue teams heard the voice of a female trapped under the collapsed block's rubble early in the search efforts, but were unable to reach her, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky has said.

"We did hear audible sounds. They were searching for a female voice... it's what we heard for several hours and eventually, we didn't hear her voice anymore," he told reporters.

"This is emphasising the magnitude of what we're going through, the efforts of all our fire rescue personnel and everyone that's here on-scene, trying to do the best we can in these heroic efforts."

Read more: How long can survivors last under the rubble?

Officials have not given up hope of finding survivors in the rubble. But rescuers have had to temporarily halt their efforts due to unstable rubble at the site, and it remains unclear exactly when that might be.

But concerns about the structure are just one issue - weather has been another. On Thursday the National Hurricane Center reported that a tropical storm had formed and could hit Florida in the days to come.

"There is a risk of storm surge, wind, and rainfall impacts in the Florida Keys and portions of the southern Florida Peninsula early next week," the agency tweeted.

Storm Elsa is currently south-east of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. Warnings are in place for Barbados, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Biden will be accompanied on the trip by his wife, Jill Biden.

The president's ability to connect his own personal losses - having endured the deaths of his first wife, a daughter and a son - with the grief of others has become an important feature of his public life.

Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has already held a briefing alongside President Biden. Mr DeSantis is tipped as a possible 2024 presidential rival and has clashed with Mr Biden on immigration, but the pair are for now putting political allegiances aside.

US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose district includes the collapse site, is part of the trip, along with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, White House homeland security adviser.

Image source, Reuters

President Biden has arrived in Surfside, and immediately pledged federal financial aid to the search efforts.

"I want to pick up 100% of the cost from the county and the state over the first 30 days," he said at a command briefing with Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

"There's going to be a lot of pain and suffering and anxiety, and even the need for psychological help in the days and months to follow. So we're not going anywhere," he added.

Biden will later meet with families of the victims, before giving a public address on the tower collapse.

It was Elena Blasser's dream to live near the beach. It came true a decade ago when she moved in to Champlain Towers South.

Now, with the partial collapse of the building, her son Pablo Rodríguez has lost hope that his mother and grandmother are still alive - and he wants answers.

Image source, Reuters

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have landed in Miami, Florida and are now traveling to Surfside - the site of the building collapse.

The president will receive a command briefing to start the day – and here’s what follows.

• 1500 GMT (1100 local time) Biden to thanks first responders and rescue crew
• 1630 GMT (1230 local time) First couple meets with victims’ families
• 1950 GMT (1550 local time) Biden delivers remarksto the public

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, search teams have temporarily stopped work amid fears the remaining structure could collapse.

The concerns about the remaining site's structural weaknesses are just one of a number of challenges facing rescuers.

Rescue personnel are working in difficult conditions - hot, humid and cramped - and are being hampered by the outbreak of fires and tropical storms.

Read more about how the rescue effort is being carried out here.

Image source, EPA

The rescue efforts are, temporarily at least, on hold over fears of structural problems.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said they stopped operations early this morning due to concerns about the safety of rescuers. The families of the missing have been told about the halt.

Fire chief Alan Cominsky said expanding cracks and a shifting column rendered the building unsafe and prompted the halt. The search will restart when it is safe, he said.

Hello and welcome to our coverage of President Biden's visit to Surfside, near Miami, Florida, the scene of last week's collapse of a tower block.

He's due to make a speech and will meet rescuers, as well as the families of the scores of victims.

Rescuers have continued to comb the debris for survivors and have not yet given up hope.