At least 235 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured after two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck within less than 40 seconds on Wednesday evening in northern Venezuela, near the capital Caracas. Authorities fear the death toll could reach into the thousands as thousands more remain missing.
The coastal area of La Guaira, home to Venezuela's main international airport, suffered the heaviest damage. Numerous high-rise apartment buildings were flattened, and residents frantically searched for missing relatives. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 100 buildings collapsed in La Guaira alone, including the large Ritasol Palace apartment complex and the beachfront Hotel Eduard’s.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency and established a $200 million reconstruction fund to repair damaged hospitals and homes. She called on businesses to supply heavy construction equipment for rescue operations. “We hope to rescue as many live people as possible,” she said in a national television address.
Heartbreaking scenes unfolded on Thursday as people were pulled from the rubble, covered in dust and blood. But initial reports indicated very few government rescue teams appeared outside the Caracas area. Yamileth Jimenez, a resident of La Guaira, told Reuters that her 19-year-old son was still trapped under the debris of a seven-story building. “He’s under concrete slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Department of Defense would help deploy search and rescue teams to the affected area, after the Simón Bolívar International Airport was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts. “They have a lot of collapsed buildings, so they will need a lot of help digging,” Rubio told reporters, stressing the next 72 “golden” hours were extremely critical.
