The demolition of Florida’s partially collapsed condo tower will take place “as soon as possible” given Tropical Storm Elsa, with workers then resuming their search for the 121 people still missing, officials said Sunday

Elsa is on a path to make landfall in Florida farther west than the collapse site in Surfside, but she could still batter the area with dangerous wind gusts and torrential rain when she hits Tampa around late Tuesday, authorities said at a press briefing.

But while the storm has halted search efforts for possible survivors in anticipation of the demolition of the unstable structure, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett insisted earlier Sunday that the bad weather was still “a blessing in disguise. 

“The building’s been a problem since the very beginning, and we need to eliminate all the problems and all the barriers to getting everybody out of there,” Burkett told CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”

“Once this building’s down, it’s going to be a green light to move full speed ahead,” he said. “Maximum effort to pull these people out and reunite them with their family.” 

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava added at the briefing, “Bringing down this building in a controlled manner is critical to expanding our scope of the search and rescue effort and allowing us to explore the area closest to the building, which has currently not been accessible to our first responders.

“As soon as the preparation is ready, the site is secure and the team is ready to go, we will begin the demolition,” she said.

Cava didn’t give an exact timeline for the demolition, but officials have said it could come as soon as Sunday night.

“As both the governor and I have made clear, our top priority is that the building comes down as soon as possible, no matter what time that occurs and as safely as possible,” Cava said.

The resumed search for possible survivors “should happen very shortly after the demolition,” the mayor added.

Cava said the demolition team will use “energetic felling,” a process that sets charges strategically and relies on gravity to create an implosion that will bring the structure down on its own footprint.

The same process was used to bring down the old Kosciuszko Bridge in 2017.

Cava said the death toll at the site of the June 24 building collapse in Surfside remains at 24.

“All 24 next of kin have now been notified,” she said.

Hundreds of workers had been sifting through the rubble of Champlain Towers South since the building collapsed.

On Saturday, officials halted the work to begin demolition of the remaining building for fear that Tropical Storm Elsa could topple the unstable structure.

Concerns over the safety of that portion of the unsteady remaining building had already halted work on the rubble for 15 hours Thursday, with workers later being allowed to dig only in some portions of the pile.

The building, constructed in 1981, had been cited for structural concerns in a damning 2018 engineer’s report.

The Champlain condo association did not approve the $15 million renovation project until earlier this year, and work had only just begun on the roof when the building collapsed.

The work was required for the building to pass a required 40-year recertification.

In a new media report, the Champlain building manager chided Surfside town officials for allegedly “holding up the work” just three days before the tragic collapse.

“This is holding us up and cost [sic] are going up and out [sic] 40 year is coming up fast,” manager Scott Stewart wrote to town officials, according to the Miami Herald.

Hundreds of workers have flocked to the site of the collapse, coming from as far off as Mexico and Israel, to help with rescue efforts.