Venezuela quake toll nears 1000, search intensifies
Desperate Venezuelans and rescue teams are racing to find survivors trapped under the rubble as the death toll from the twin earthquakes approaches 1,000 and frustrations mount over limited resources and government aid.
Foreign rescue teams and aid have arrived in the hardest-hit areas nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors devastated Caracas and surrounding areas.
The government estimates 172 people were trapped under the rubble, along with 920 confirmed deaths and 3,360 injuries. A website that takes missing person reports listing more than 50,000 people.
Economic losses were also revealed on Friday, with a UN report estimating direct damage from the earthquakes at about $6.7 billion.
Moron, near the epicenter, was still without power on Friday afternoon, the local fire chief told Reuters. The transmission line outage slowed efforts to restore full service at a major port, a refinery and a petrochemical complex, the sources said.
Reuters witnesses passed highways cracked by earthquakes and passed dozens of buildings reduced to broken concrete and twisted metal. Building names were spray-painted on some of the ruins to help rescuers identify locations.
Traffic was heavy towards the hardest-hit part of Venezuela’s La Guaira province; There were both official vehicles, including troop-carrying trucks, and vehicles resembling private vehicles.
Earthquakes destroyed at least 100 buildings in La Guaira, including high-rise apartments.
While residents of the region tried to dig through the rubble with their hands and handmade tools, they expressed the lack of heavy equipment, while volunteers brought materials from Caracas and Valencia on motorcycles.
Jennifer Palacios, 25, said the earthquakes occurred when she briefly left her home in the eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex, named for Venezuela’s late socialist leader, and buried her six-year-old son and five other relatives. Their fate was unknown.
“It is the community that managed to bring people out alive,” said the woman sitting on a plastic chair in front of the rubble. “We need them to bring cranes to move the molds. There are still people trapped.”
Police, national guards and other authorities did not intervene in the looting but diverted traffic towards Caracas, Reuters witnesses saw.
The government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who came to power in January after the United States seized his predecessor, has promised massive aid and was shown on state television visiting La Guaira.
Saying that La Guaira province will be “militarized” to facilitate rescue efforts, Rodriguez thanked the motorcycle caravans that brought supplies and said that the government distributed 2,600 tons of food.
A Reuters crew spotted police and national guard motorcycle patrols on the road leading to the hard-hit Los Corales community of La Guaira. However, aid was insufficient on Friday; Firefighters, police, civil protection and the military were on the streets in some places, and absent or very few in others.
The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has tried to portray himself as an agent of political change despite serving as vice president of the ousted Nicolas Maduro.
Oil minister Paula Henao said in a radio interview that Venezuela’s oil production level was not affected by the earthquake, with production at 1.2 million barrels per day.
Oil executives and workers in Venezuela’s energy sector said the sector had escaped major infrastructure damage, but power outages and port delays were expected to reduce oil production.
Foreign rescue teams, including some from countries that have turned against Venezuela during decades of international isolation, political repression and economic deterioration, began arriving on Friday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira.
Mexico, Colombia, India and Spain were among the countries that sent rescue teams, supplies and equipment.
While the US said it was taking action to provide $150 million in aid and sanctions relief, the US military said it would send two ships and helicopters and planes to support rescue efforts.
The earthquakes hit a country already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil, impoverishing residents, pushing millions abroad and eroding basic infrastructure and services.
The US Geological Survey estimated that more than 10,000 deaths were possible; This makes the earthquakes among the deadliest to occur in Latin America in the last century.
The UN’s migration agency, which is providing emergency shelter and other relief supplies, said around seven million people could be affected.
