Death Toll From Venezuela Earthquakes Rises to 920, Says Congress President

Desperate Venezuelans and foreign rescuers raced to find survivors trapped under rubble on Friday after twin earthquakes flattened parts of Caracas and surrounding areas, as frustration mounted over a lack of heavy equipment and the death toll neared 1,000.

Foreign rescue teams and aid began arriving nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas.

The government estimated hundreds of people were still trapped and missing on top of 920 confirmed fatalities and 3,360 injuries. A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had over 50,000 listed as of Friday afternoon. The UN’s aid chief gave a similar tally.

The U.S. Geological Survey has predicted high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the last century.

La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas, was the worst affected, as at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments, crumbled to the ground.

Jennifer Palacios, 25, said the quakes struck when she briefly left her home in the city’s eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex, named after Venezuela’s late socialist leader, burying her 6-year-old son and five other relatives.

“It’s the community that has managed to get people out alive,” she said, sitting on a plastic chair in front of the rubble. “We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped.”

Reuters witnesses traversed highways cracked by the quakes and passed dozens of buildings reduced to broken concrete and twisted metal. Some ruins were spray-painted with the names of the buildings, in a bid to help rescuers identify locations.

Scattered Help

The government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after the United States captured her predecessor in January, has pledged a massive deployment of assistance. State television showed images of her making a visit on Thursday to La Guaira.

Yet help was overall patchy on Friday, with authorities like firefighters, police, civil protection and the military on the streets in some places but absent or minimally present in others.

Lawyer Ricardo Trias, 73, was trying to obtain a death certificate for his godson, whose body was pulled from the rubble of his building in the town of Caraballeda on Thursday night and remains at the site, covered with a green cloth.

“We want them to give us the body…we can’t take it and here it will rot,” said Trias. “No forensic authority has come.”

Trias said his goddaughter, 33, was rescued and taken to a hospital in Caracas.

Residents digging through debris with their hands and improvised tools decried a lack of state help and heavy equipment, while volunteers brought supplies on motorcycles from Caracas and Valencia.

Rodriguez, who said La Guaira state would be “militarized” to facilitate rescue work, thanked the volunteer caravans and said the government had distributed 2,600 tons of food.

A Reuters team observed police and national guard motorcycle patrols on the road to La Guaira’s hard-hit Los Corales community.

The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has sought to portray herself as an agent of political change even though she served as vice president to the ousted Nicolas Maduro.

World Rallies

Foreign rescue teams – including some from countries which have opposed Venezuela during decades of international isolation, political repression and economic deterioration – began arriving late on Thursday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira.

Several countries including India and Switzerland sent in rescue teams and supplies. Mexico, with its own experience in earthquake recovery, sent 250 military rescue personnel, plus five rescue dogs and other equipment.

Over 60 Colombians arrived on Friday, as did over 180 rescue workers of a promised 300-person-strong Salvadoran team and nearly 100 from Spain.

The United States said it was mobilizing $150 million in aid and easing sanctions to facilitate earthquake relief. The U.S. military dispatched two ships and said helicopters and aircraft would support search-and-rescue operations.

In Los Corales, 50 people from El Salvador’s team were assessing the ruins of the three 10-story-tall buildings which made up the Coral Mar complex, using drones, heat scanners and dogs to find out whether living survivors were still inside.

“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,” said Dr. Roberto Gavidia, the head of the team, which has also worked in Haiti and Turkey.

The team had yet to find any survivors.

Nation Under Strain

The quake hit a nation already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil that has impoverished residents, driven millions abroad and eroded basic infrastructure and services.

“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.

Nearly 7 million people could be affected, said the U.N.’s migration body, which was supplying emergency shelter and other relief supplies.

Foreign energy companies said Venezuela’s vital oil sector had escaped major disruption, while the Caracas Stock Exchange remained closed after being turned into an aid collection center.

Until now, the deadliest quake in Venezuela’s modern history had been in 1967, killing 240 people.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera in La Guaira and Mayela Armas in Caracas, Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Moron, Reuters TV in La Guaira, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez in Barcelona, Fabiola Arambulo in Mexico City and Reuters bureaux around the world; Writing by David Latona, Andrew Cawthorne, Julia Symmes Cobb, and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Jon Boyle and Deepa Babington)

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