The Colorado political strategist whose wife is missing in the collapsed Florida condo building on Wednesday said he continues to pray for a miracle but his hope is waning that she will be found as search crews continue combing the rubble after nearly a week.

Mike Stratton, a leading Democratic consultant with decades of experience running presidential and state-level campaigns, expressed appreciation for the rescuers who have been searching the unstable pile of concrete since the beachfront 12-story Champlain Towers South condo collapsed overnight early on June 24 in Surfside, north of Miami Beach.

Stratton’s wife, Cassondra Stratton, is among the 145 people still listed as unaccounted for. Authorities said late Wednesday that the number of confirmed dead had risen to 18.

“While I continue to pray for a miracle, hope dims with each excruciating day. Cassie’s life was filled with love, friendship and adventure,” Mike Stratton said in a statement. “No one who knows Cassie can think of her even now without a smile. Her passion for life would light up every room. Her interest in everyone she met made them feel important and noticed. The love she gave to so many reverberates around the world in a chorus of hopes and prayers that I know she can feel.

“I want to share my heartfelt appreciation for the brave women and men who are risking their own lives to find our loved ones. Home is wherever Cassie was and it’s how she made those around her feel. As we carry her in our hearts, she continues to give joy – and always will.”

Cassondra Stratton, 40, has worked as an actress, model and Pilates instructor, her husband said last week after he returned to Miami from a business trip he’d been on.

Her sister, Stephanie Fonte, told The New York Times that when the sisters were together, Cassie would often have them pose for photos near a spray of flowers or on the beach, where she loved to walk and bike.

Mike Stratton said that the couple had been spending time during the COVID-19 pandemic at their condo, which they have owned for four years.

He told The Miami Herald last week about a “frantic” phone call he received from his wife at 1:30 a.m. last Thursday morning, just before authorities say the condo tower collapsed.

“She described that the building was shaking and then … the phone went dead,” he said.

“Tragic,” tweeted White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on June 25.

“If you have spent any time in Democratic politics the past four decades, you probably know Mike Stratton. His wife, Cassandra, is among the missing in the Surfside Building collapse.”

A senior policy adviser at Denver-based law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the Durango native has worked on 10 presidential campaigns and had a hand as an adviser and strategist in the election of a good share of Colorado’s leading Democrats since the 1970s.

– The Associated Press contributed to this article.