CARACAS — Foreign rescue teams and aid were arriving on Friday in Venezuela nearly two days after devastating twin earthquakes flattened areas in and around the capital Caracas, forcing residents to dig through rubble to save relatives, friends and neighbors.
In cities across northern Venezuela, neighbors helped each other to search for loved ones, after back-to-back earthquakes killed at least 589 people and left 2,980 injured.
Many were stunned Thursday morning as they saw buildings reduced to skeletons, furniture hanging out of windows and helicopters circling overhead. Buildings were flattened and streets cracked open.
The government has estimated hundreds of people still trapped and missing on top of the confirmed fatalities and injuries. A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had 50,000 listed as of Friday morning.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced the new toll early Friday, surrounded by government and military officials as she welcomed the arrival of rescue crews from all over the world.
“We are going to rescue the people who are trapped,” she said. “We are working tirelessly on this task.”
The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas on Wednesday evening as Venezuelans were enjoying a public holiday.
The US Geological Survey has predicted high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the last century.
Help was patchy on Thursday, with authorities like firefighters, police civil protection and the military on the streets in some places but absent or with minimal presence in others.
La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas, was the worst affected, as at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments, smashed to the ground.
Anguished residents, many of whom combed through debris with their hands or whatever tools they could find, decried a lack of state help and proper equipment, though state television showed images of Rodriguez making an afternoon visit and pledging aid.
Venezuelan state TV showed dramatic images of rescues, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab with only a bare foot poking out before rescuers slid her out alive. But few government search teams were initially seen outside Caracas.
Beyond those combing through the rubble, Venezuelans have also stepped up to provide ad-hoc aid to earthquake victims, with motorcycle caravans of supplies reaching La Guaira on Thursday evening from Caracas.
Dozens also travelled by motorcycle through the night from the city of Valencia, carrying food and supplies.
Foreign rescue teams, including some from countries which have opposed Venezuela during decades of international isolation, political repression and economic deterioration, began arriving late on Thursday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira.
Several countries including India and Switzerland sent in rescue teams and supplies. Mexico has sent 250 rescuers, El Salvador 188 and a Colombian air force plane carrying 63 rescue crew was on its way on Friday morning.
Venezuelan TV on Friday showed the arrival of rescuers with dogs and equipment, including cameras and ground-penetrating radar, from Spain. Teams from Germany and Chile also landed.
Turkey announced two flights will leave Istanbul on Friday with rescuers and a pair of search dogs. China also said it will provide assistance. Leaders from Qatar, Brazil, Portugal and Canada vowed to send help.
Rescue teams from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic arrived in Venezuela on Thursday, along with rescuers and material aid from Mexico.
“No country is prepared to provide the response that’s needed. That’s what neighboring countries are there for,” Dominican air force Maj. Carlos Olivares said.
The US has said it is mobilizing $150 million in aid, and eased long-time sanctions on the socialist country to allow earthquake aid.
The US military said it has dispatched two ships and will use helicopters and aircraft for search and rescue efforts.
On Friday morning, Rodriguez said La Guaira state will be “militarized” to facilitate rescue work, and 2,600 tons of food had been distributed there.
“I want to thank the motorcyclists who have spontaneously offered their means of transport to bring water to the town that needs, and to deliver food,” Rodriguez said in remarks broadcast on state television, referring to the citizens providing aid deliveries.
The quake hit a nation already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil that has impoverished residents, triggered a migratory exodus of millions, and eroded basic infrastructure and services.
The International Organization for Migration said that up to 6.76 million people in Venezuela could be affected by the quakes, some 2 million of them in Caracas alone. Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross’ regional director for the Americas, said “people are still terrified to reenter what were their homes.”
Near the epicenter in Moron, a seaside town in Carabobo state, houses crumpled and residents had no water or electricity. Families salvaged what they could, including mattresses, televisions and washing machines.
In downtown Caracas, hundreds spent the night huddled in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.
Families posted missing-person flyers with photos of while others shared handwritten lists of names. Venezuelans abroad struggled to make contact with relatives due to interrupted phone service in the country.
Media reports have shared notable moments of hope among the destruction, including a young man brought out on a stretcher in the San Bernardino district of Caracas to the applause of onlookers as his tearful mother said, “Leandro, I love you.”
Venezuelan TV broadcast video of a girl covered in dust and wrapping herself in a dark sweatshirt as she emerged from rubble with the help of rescuers. Caracas metropolitan rescue team head José Luis Núñez said she was found in a 10-story building in La Guaira that collapsed and flattened “like a pancake.”
“We want to highlight this girl’s strength, determination and will to live,” Núñez said.
In the OPEC member’s vital oil sector, foreign energy companies said their operations had not suffered major disruption and oil infrastructure appeared largely spared.
The Caracas Stock Exchange remained closed, turned into an aid collection center.
The natural disaster is the latest challenge for Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the capture and removal from power of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States.
Rodríguez declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes.
While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
Until now, the deadliest quake in Venezuela’s modern history had been in 1967, killing 240 people.
Source: Saudi Gazette