Joe Biden Will Meet with Families in Catastrophic Surfside Condo Collapse

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden on Thursday will meet with victims, family members and first responders of the 12-story residential building that partially collapsed in Florida last week.

Biden's pending trip was announced by the White House. He will be joined by his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

"We're still working out the final components of the trip tomorrow," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a Wednesday briefing, adding that "every component of the trip would be "coordinated with officials on the ground, there is still an ongoing search and rescue effort on the ground, and we want to ensure we're not doing anything to pull away from those resources."

Psaki added that the president and first lady "will be thanking heroic first responders, search and rescue teams, and everyone has been working tirelessly around the clock."

Speaking to reporters while touring a Houston vaccination site Tuesday, Dr. Biden, 70, said she and her husband were "grieving alongside" the Surfside community, as recovery efforts continue in the collapse that has already killed 16 people with another 140-plus unaccounted for.

"Joe and I are going to be going there on Thursday to try to help comfort those families and so if you could find it in your hearts today, if you could just take a couple of minutes and say a prayer for those families that they have the strength to get through this," Dr. Biden said, according to a report from a Miami CBS affiliate.

Authorities have not yet determined why the section of the building fell, and a massive search and rescue operation is still underway at the site.

Earlier this week, Psaki told reporters the president believes "there should be an investigation" into what led the Champlain Towers South building to fall around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday.

RELATED: Joe Biden Offers Sympathy For Victims, Families of Miami Condo Collapse: 'Unimaginably Difficult Time'

Joe Raedle/Getty Surfside condo collapse

In a statement, Florida Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said that he hoped Biden would assist in treating first responders for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We're planning on appealing to the President for the best PTSD support possible for the men and women who are working in conditions that resemble more of a warzone than a normal search and rescue mission," Patronis said. "We've already deployed mental health experts to engage these heroes, but having access to the nation's best mental health experts and guidance would go a long way in helping these officials cope with some of the horrible things they are having to see and deal with."

The news comes days after President Biden called the incident "heartbreaking" in a statement released after he spoke with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who visited the the wreckage of the 136-unit complex last week.

"What I heard from Administrator Criswell was excruciating: she reiterated that words can't describe the scene on the ground and she gave me an update on meetings she had with state and local officials to ensure they have everything they need," the president said in the statement.

On Friday, Biden spoke to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by phone and approved an emergency declaration for Miami-Dade County, which authorizes FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts at the site and to provide temporary shelter and housing for those who have been displaced.