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World aids rescue effort as Venezuela quake death toll hits 920
(AL-JAZEERA) International rescue teams have joined an urgent search for survivors in Venezuela, where people remain trapped under collapsed buildings after two devastating earthquakes on Wednesday.
Countries from across the Americas – including Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Cuba and the United States – as well as the United Nations, continued on Friday to send search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the quakes. Authorities have raised their estimate of the death toll to 589 people.
“To the Venezuelan people, to those whose loved ones are under the rubble, know that we are determined that help gets to you,” said the UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher.
The earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, were among the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century and were felt across the region.
The official death toll from the twin earthquakes rose to 920, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez, president of the national assembly, said on Friday. Some 3,000 other people are wounded.
Rescuers work at the scene in an earthquake-affected area of Caracas, Venezuela, on June 25 [Ronald Pena R/EPA]
‘We lost everything’
Some of the worst damage is in the coastal state of La Guaira, north of the capital, Caracas.
More than 100 buildings in the state have collapsed, and at least 70,000 families have been affected, said Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
The region is also home to Venezuela’s main international airport, which has been closed due to damage.
In La Guaira city, volunteers dug through wreckage with their bare hands as families waited for news of missing relatives.
Along the Caracas-La Guaira highway, streams of civilians headed towards the coast carrying water, food and medicine, stepping in as the scale of the disaster overwhelmed initial rescue efforts.
“We lost everything. We have no food or medicines … We hope help arrives quickly,” said Pedro Perez, 64, an upholstery workshop owner who said he had lost both his home and business and was sleeping on the street with his wife and children.
Scenes of panic and destruction also played out in Caracas, where many spent the night sleeping on the streets or in their cars due to fear of more buildings collapsing.
“People are afraid to go back into their houses,” journalist Maria Emilia Miro Quesada told Al Jazeera from Caracas. “They are very uncertain … about the structures, the damages.”
Venezuela’s recovery from the disaster is being hampered by years of economic collapse and strained infrastructure.
“Venezuela was already in a very difficult situation” before the quakes, with frequent power outages and public services in “shambles”, said Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota in neighbouring Colombia.
“Many hospitals were already operating under capacity… They simply don’t have all of the engineers and doctors that are needed.”
Response from Americas ‘crucial’
The US, which in January carried out a military operation culminating in the abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, has pledged what it called a “whole-of-government response,” which includes plans to deploy warships, transport planes and helicopters, as well as to mobilise $150m in aid.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the response would be “big… fast and… effective”.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the dispatch of a field hospital, as well as dozens of firefighters and other support personnel.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he had readied 300 rescuers and paramedics, and 50 tonnes of equipment, medicines and basic supplies.
Cuban health workers were already “fully mobilised and providing medical services to the affected population,” said Havana’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country was dispatching a military team of rescuers and medical personnel and would send further assistance if necessary.
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