Footage filmed on Thursday shows damaged streets, collapsed buildings and people entering quake-hit shops in the coastal state of La Guaira, as rescue teams continued searching for survivors after Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes.
Bodies lying on public roads can also be seen, while emergency crews worked through the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Marlenys Herrera, one of those affected, said her husband and children were trapped beneath the debris.
“We lost everything, everything, everything. My son is there. My son is 36 years old; the other is 35. My husband is there with my other daughter,” the woman said. She also stated that “there are more people there, and there are more people who are buried.”
The injured were treated near the Dr Jose Maria Vargas Regional General Hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the scale of the emergency. Medical staff set up improvised care areas outside the facility as patients continued to arrive.
“Since last night I have been here at Vargas Hospital. They gave me treatment, and somehow I got out of the rubble. For a moment I felt that I was going to die, but I asked God to get me out,” said one injured man outside the hospital.
A repatriate from the United States said he had only just arrived back in Venezuela when the disaster struck.
“It had been years since I came to Venezuela. I arrived yesterday as a repatriate from the United States <…> and they took us to Macuto to a hotel called ‘Negra Hipolita’. There were 135 repatriates, and of those of us who remained, there were 12,” he added.
According to Venezuela’s health minister, Carlos Alvarado, around 235 people have died and more than 4,300 have been injured after the two earthquakes struck just 39 seconds apart.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said nearly 100 buildings had collapsed in La Guaira state, leaving about 70,000 families affected in one of Venezuela’s worst recent seismic emergencies.
Source: Viory
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