Venezuela Devastated by Deadly Earthquake: Survivors Recount 'Brutal and Rapid' Tragedy

At least 589 people have been killed, thousands injured, and many remain missing after an unprecedented double earthquake struck Venezuela's coastal region on Wednesday afternoon (local time). The disaster is considered the worst earthquake to hit the country since October 1900.

The port city of La Guaira, home to Venezuela's main international airport, suffered the most severe damage. Numerous high-rise apartment buildings along Hotel Avenue—a once-lush coastal resort area lined with palm trees and luxury condos—collapsed in an instant.

Ligia Level, 67, recounted jumping from a first-floor window, breaking her leg as she tried to escape. Most of her family lived in three apartment buildings along the avenue. She believes her mother and sister, who were in the neighboring building, have almost certainly died. “We've lost them,” she sobbed while waiting for news near the rubble. “Please help us, we really need international aid. Anything and anyone who can get here. We are not used to this.”

Interim leader Delcy Rodríguez declared La Guaira the worst-hit area. She called it an “unprecedented seismic phenomenon” and lamented the “absolute tragedy” for residents. Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, said 250 buildings had been destroyed, most of them in La Guaira.

On social media, posts pleading for information about the missing proliferated. A pilot named Carlos Ravelo was missing at the Residencias Villamar building. The three-member Bencomo family—local daycare operators—were also missing in the same building. Other posts showed families of four, five, and six members, including young children, completely missing.

Relatives of victims flocked to medical centers in the capital Caracas. Outside the public Domingo Luciani hospital, David Guevara scanned patient lists for the names of his two aunts. He said they lived in the Residencias Las Palmas building in La Guaira and had not been heard from since the quake. His seven-year-old nephew, Sebastián, was found alive and was undergoing surgery for arm and leg injuries.

The “earthquake patient” list illustrates the disaster's multi-generational impact: It includes two four-year-old children named Ana and Axiel, a six-year-old boy named José, and a seven-month-old baby named Jesús; while the trauma center treated patients aged 73 (María), 19 (Antony), and 55 (Carmen).

The tragedy was witnessed by two fishermen at sea. “Oh God!” one cried as massive dust clouds engulfed the coastal areas of La Guaira where their families lived.

Héctor Morán Cirkovic, 61, a retired architect, was at the Playa Grande yacht club pool, a few hundred meters north of the Residencias Anna Mar, when 40 seconds of violent shaking brought buildings down. “It was brutal and very fast. There wasn't even five seconds to escape. People were screaming and in shock, thinking life was over. There was a lot of fear, panic,” he said. Cirkovic recalled seeing five buildings collapse “straight in front of my eyes.”

Engineer Francisco Garcés, speaking on state television VTV, compared the quake's power to that of an atomic bomb. “We have just witnessed an extraordinary seismic event. This earthquake released 32 times more energy than the 6.5-magnitude quake that hit the same area in 1967.”

Nearly 48 hours after the disaster, rescue efforts continue to search for survivors, though hope is fading. “Catia La Mar is destroyed. Very few buildings survived,” said Diego González, who had just spent four hours digging his cousin out of a collapsed home in the town of Catia La Mar.

Rotny Bombart, 33, a health worker, spent five hours digging his mother, María Eugenia, out of a collapsed 15-story building in La Guaira. “Nothing can prepare you for this,” he said, recalling the chaotic scene of bodies, children, and a near-total absence of government assistance.