Four days after two powerful earthquakes shook Venezuela’s northern state of La Guaira, local and international rescue teams raced against the clock to pull survivors from the rubble.
The government reported 1,450 dead from the quakes on Sunday afternoon. It faces growing criticism from Venezuelans over an “inadequate” response felt to be overshadowed by civilian-led efforts to rescue people buried under collapsed buildings.
Thousands more have been reported missing.
Even as the likelihood of finding people alive diminished with each passing hour, rescuers continued to free some survivors from mountains of debris, offering anguished families a sliver of hope. The first 48 to 72 hours after a natural disaster are crucial to rescue efforts, though survival can be extended if people have access to food and water.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Sunday night that even as the threshold passed, the search for survivors would continue.
More than 2,600 rescuers from around the world had arrived with trained search dogs and machinery, the government said.
“It’s been incredibly hard work, but we’re going strong,” said Jason Mercano, a civilian who was able to communicate with family buried under the rubble and was working with rescue teams to pull them out. “We’ve never given up hope.”
More than 770 buildings partially or totally collapsed
Still, many Venezuelans are struggling to hold onto hope in an increasingly desperate situation. The one-two punch of 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that hit last Wednesday left a trail of devastation. Up to 6.8 million of Venezuela’s nearly 30 million residents may be affected by the earthquakes, according to the UN.
Authorities said Sunday that more than 770 buildings had totally or partially collapsed from the earthquakes, twice as many as were reported destroyed or damaged on Friday. The risk of further damage remains as aftershocks continued to shake Venezuela; quakes measuring 4.2 and 4.5 hit Sunday morning.
But rescue efforts in La Guaira – the hardest-hit area – appeared significantly more organised on Sunday as international rescue missions arrived en masse. In previous days, residents there had expressed frustration and anger about the level of response.
The government reported on state television that more than 14,000 members of the military and police were now patrolling La Guaira state, where access is blocked and special permits are required to enter.
Because of the chaos and poor cellphone service since the earthquakes, many Venezuelans have turned to non-governmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. More than 50,000 people were reported missing on one such database, though it is unclear how many have been found.
Moments of optimism contrasted sharply with grief on Sunday
Masses of people gathered around a mountain of debris, watching as rescue crews from the US, France and Venezuela pulled a man and his son from a crack in the concrete, covered in dust and almost unresponsive.
Helmet-clad teams pulled them on a black tarp and passed the two carefully through the crowd to an ambulance to hydrate them through an IV. Rescue teams and onlookers burst into applause in a moment of relief, then continued working.
In another part of La Guaira, Helen Guedez and her mother were reeling. They had spent days trying to save her father, Jesús, from their flat.
She felt a swell of hope when rescue teams from the US came to inspect the building and confirmed that her dad was still alive under the rubble. But they told the family that the building was too unstable to enter and rescue him, she said.
They left the scene, but Guedez said she would continue trying to rescue her father without their help. She said they were now working with civilian volunteers and local miners to get him out.
“We’re not going to give up,” said Guedez. “The rest of the team is willing to continue. They know there’s another way to get him out and they said they’re going to keep working until the very end.”
Despite the overwhelming demand for medical services and the shortage of supplies in Venezuela’s public health system, Domingo Luciani Hospital in the country’s capital of Caracas coped with an influx of patients thanks to a flood of donations.
“We have tons of patients, but thank God, people have responded by bringing us a great deal of supplies,” said Leomery Pérez, an anaesthesiologist at the hospital.
Authorities said they had treated more than 3,100 wounded people, including many with crush injuries.
