“Every hour matters now. Families are digging with their bare hands, rescue teams are searching collapsed buildings, and many still believe loved ones trapped beneath the rubble are alive.”
Rescue teams from Venezuela and around the world are working around the clock to find survivors after two powerful earthquakes tore through the country, leaving more than 920 people dead, 3,360 injured, and over 50,000 people reported missing.
The twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, struck on Wednesday evening, devastating parts of Caracas, La Guaira, and nearby communities. Two days later, hundreds of people are still believed to be trapped beneath collapsed buildings as desperate families wait for news of their relatives.
In La Guaira, one of the worst-hit areas, frustration is growing over the slow pace of rescue operations. Residents and volunteers have continued searching through piles of broken concrete, often without the heavy machinery they say is urgently needed.
Twenty-five-year-old Jennifer Palacios, whose six-year-old son and five other relatives remain buried beneath the ruins of the Hugo Chávez housing complex, said local people have been forced to lead much of the rescue effort themselves.
“It’s the community that has managed to get people out alive,” she said. “We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped.”
Reuters journalists travelling through the disaster zone described cracked highways, flattened apartment blocks, and twisted metal scattered across entire neighbourhoods. Some collapsed buildings have been spray-painted with their names to help rescuers identify where victims may still be buried.
Help is beginning to arrive from overseas.
Search-and-rescue teams from several countries, including El Salvador and the United States, reached Venezuela on Thursday night and Friday with specialist equipment, drones, trained dogs, and heat-detection technology.
Leading one of the rescue teams, Roberto Gavidia of El Salvador, said there were still encouraging signs that people were alive beneath the debris.
“People have told us they can hear people. They call them on the phone and they answer, and they can hear people screaming and calling,” Gavidia said as his team prepared to search a collapsed apartment block.
The United States has announced $150 million in emergency assistance and temporarily eased sanctions to speed humanitarian aid into the country. Military aircraft, helicopters, and ships have also been deployed to support relief operations.
Not everyone has been reached.
Some residents say emergency services have been visible in certain districts but almost absent in others. Ricardo Trias, who was trying to recover the body of his godson from a collapsed building in Caraballeda, said authorities had yet to arrive.
“We want them to give us the body… we can’t take it and here it will rot,” he said. “No forensic authority has come.”
The disaster has struck a country already weakened by years of economic hardship and failing infrastructure. The United Nations estimates that nearly 7 million people could be affected, while the U.S. Geological Survey has warned that the final death toll could climb far higher if more survivors are not found soon.
For families waiting outside collapsed buildings, the hope has not disappeared.
As long as phones continue ringing beneath the rubble and voices can still be heard, rescuers say they will keep searching.
