LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Venezuela’s increasingly desperate search for survivors entered its third day Saturday as people searched through the rubble of collapsed homes and apartment buildings after the devastating events. one-two blow of earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5knowing that time is running out.
A mix of international rescue teams, Venezuelans searching for loved ones and neighbors, used shovels, heavy equipment, ropes and bare hands on mounds of spilled concrete throughout La Guaira, one of Venezuela’s hardest-hit states. Humanitarian agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for recovering people alive, although it can be extended if they have access to food and water.
The death toll from Wednesday’s earthquakes rose to at least 1,430 as of Saturday. The number of missing people was hight more than 51,000 missing on Friday. People said they saw few state relief teams in the hardest-hit areas, although authorities projected an image of a robust government response.
So far, there have been 432 seismic events – Wednesday’s two earthquakes and 430 aftershocks, Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said on state television on Saturday.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez told state television on Saturday that more than 14,000 members of the army and police are patrolling the area, where access is now blocked and special permits are required to enter.
More than 2,000 relief units from 21 international organizations are on the ground in Venezuela or en route, Jorge Rodríguez said Saturday.
A runway at the badly damaged Simón Bolívar International Airport, which serves Venezuela’s capital, was operational Saturday, according to a senior U.S. official who requested anonymity to brief reporters.
The United States has deployed 80-person search and rescue teams to Los Angeles and Fairfax County, equipped with dogs and equipment that were activated within two hours of the disaster and are on the ground pulling survivors from the rubble, the official said. County and city teams from Miami are also on the way, the official added.
The United States has also dedicated $150 million to the disaster and is working on an additional nine-figure plan, which is expected to be announced in the coming days, the senior U.S. official said, emphasizing that Venezuela is important to U.S. national and economic security.
Starlink also agreed to provide free emergency satellite internet access during recovery efforts.
Governments mobilize emergency effortsGovernment forces distributed food and water to La Guaira survivors, and Rodríguez said his government was preparing a comprehensive response during these “critical hours to save people alive.”
The disaster represents an enormous challenge for Rodriguezthe former vice president who took office in January after the then-president was captured and removed from office Nicolas Maduro by the United States. Venezuela faces economic disarray for more than a decade, and many reject the legitimacy of the political movement that Rodríguez represents.
The death toll was expected to rise, and people reported tens of thousands missing on independent digital databases. These figures likely include people who were held incommunicado due to lack of phone signals, and some reports may be duplicated.
The number of injured stood at more than 3,300 as of midday Friday, and authorities said they had rescued 243 people.
More than 3,000 families have been affected and more than 7,500 people are hospitalized, Jorge Rodríguez said on Saturday.
Millions of people in shockThe International Organization for Migration said up to 6.76 million people could be affected, including around 2 million in Caracas alone. The destruction was amplified by the rapid succession of shallow earthquakes, according to experts.
Loyce Pace, regional director of the International Red Cross for the Americas, said “people are still terrified of returning to what was once their home.”
Indeed, many continued to sleep on the streets.
In the town of Maiquetia, people lined up in front of stores and pharmacies which served them one by one behind closed doors. At one point, a woman in the crowd threw herself to the ground to shield a pack of diapers with her body, desperate to keep it.
Traffic and crowds of motorcyclists sometimes disrupted search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly called for silence in an attempt to hear signs of life beneath the rubble, but the bikers — both civilian and uniformed — continued to honk their horns and rev their engines, much to the frustration of first responders.
Some people have started taking essentials such as toilet paper and food from stores in Catia La Mar, next to the country’s main airport. Others invaded a civilian van that was distributing bread and water, until a soldier intervened. The parking lot of a pharmacy transformed into a makeshift shelter with tarpaulins, hammocks and tents.
A few miles away, Yuleidy Cadenas, 28, stood in front of a collapsed public housing building, hoping her son, mother and brother would be rescued alive.
She escaped barefoot from another building that collapsed Wednesday and discovered that her mother’s 12-story apartment tower had collapsed.
“I got on the rubble and told them to scream, and no one did, not my brother, not my son, not my mother,” Cadenas said.