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Quakes, rescues, and toll
Rescue efforts continued in Venezuela this Tuesday, six days after a double earthquake killed at least 1,719 people, mainly from the collapse of numerous buildings, with the epicenter in the state of La Guaira.
“al menos mil 719 muertos”
In La Guaira, a group of rescatistas from the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico continued this morning with tasks to extract a vigilante from a residential building in Catia La Mar, trapped in the third level of the basement after the Wednesday temblores.
The UN is coordinating more than 2 mil rescatistas sent from 27 countries to search for survivors under the rubble after the quakes of magnitud 7.2 and 7.5 on 24 de junio, while official figures offered this Monday put the number of heridos at 5 mil 34 and the number of damnificados at 15 mil 866.
A rapid experimental assessment by NASA using satellite images indicated that the double earthquake in Venezuela could have left about 58 mil 870 buildings damaged or destroyed across the affected region.
Metro de Caracas said this Tuesday it had resumed service after suspending it the day before due to a powerful replica of magnitud 4,6.
Fuel shortages stall machinery
Venezuela’s earthquake response has been crippled by gasoline shortages, leaving excavators and other heavy rescue equipment idle even as government-owned machinery ran out of fuel at rescue sites in La Guaira.
CNN reported Tuesday that government-owned excavators in La Guaira were unable to operate because they had run out of fuel, and rescue crews dug through collapsed concrete with pickaxes, shovels and even their bare hands.
A civilian, Ariana Requena, said, "There is no fuel, the machines are stopped since yesterday," while she searched for her mother and brother amid the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira.
Requena added, "We had to raise hell yesterday because the machines stopped at 3 in the afternoon," as diesel shortages became a new obstacle to rescue operations a week after the quakes.
Energy Minister Paula Henao appeared on state television to address the shortages, saying, "We're on the ground making sure that assistance reaches every location and that there's no shortage of fuel or diesel needed to power the machinery required for the response."
Humanitarian needs and next phase
As the death toll climbed, humanitarian needs rose, with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warning in a statement that "as the death toll rises, needs are skyrocketing."
“"as the death toll rises, needs are skyrocketing."”
In a week after the two earthquakes, UNHCR said nearly 2,000 deaths had been confirmed and more than 6,400 people had been rescued so far, while UNICEF had airlifted enough supplies for 100,000 people for three months.
The UN noted that the earthquakes damaged or destroyed 1,000 buildings, including hospitals, as well as more than 400 schools and parts of water networks, expanding the scale of challenges facing relief and restoration of basic services.
In parallel, international search-and-rescue contingents began winding down operations, citing the closing of the "critical survival window," while the UN estimates some 50,000 people remain unaccounted for.
In the port town of La Guaira, rescue workers stacked coffins inside an improvised morgue as vans arrived with more corpses, and the UN was procuring 10,000 body bags, according to resident coordinator Gianluca Rampolla.
