La Guaira, Venezuela. Rescue teams continued searching on Sunday for survivors of two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week, as signs of life offered occasional relief while tens of thousands of people remained unaccounted for. The death toll from Wednesday’s twin earthquakes neared 1,500 in La Guaira, the hardest-hit state.
Rescue operations continue
Foreign rescue teams continued arriving in La Guaira as search and recovery efforts went on in the coastal state, about 40 km north of Caracas. Dozens of buildings collapsed into piles of sand and rubble.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez said operations would continue after more survivors were found alive on Sunday. She also announced the creation of a presidential commission to determine whether damaged buildings remain habitable.
“Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing. Today (Sunday) we have recovered people alive and, therefore, operations are not being suspended. We always maintain hope,” Rodriguez said.
Casualties and damage
Earlier on Sunday, Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Assembly, said the death toll had risen by 20 to 1,450. He said 3,150 people remained injured, 12,721 had been displaced and 774 buildings had collapsed.
Rodriguez said school classes would remain suspended for another week and that electricity service in La Guaira had been restored to 75%.
“We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, to their residences can stay,” Jorge Rodriguez said.
Survivors and missing people
Families and volunteers spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble before more than 2,600 foreign rescue workers arrived. Rescue workers often complained of limited heavy equipment and a scant official presence, while hundreds of aftershocks caused further damage and kept residents on edge.
The government said at least 33 people had been rescued by Saturday evening, including several children. On Sunday, a father and his son were also pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building.
Although authorities have reported hundreds missing or trapped, nearly 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on an opposition-backed website on Sunday, down from 55,000 a day earlier.
