Nearly a full day after two devastating earthquakes rocked Venezuela, survivors in the coastal city of La Guaira were still clawing through the wreckage of collapsed buildings with nothing but their hands, desperately hoping to find neighbors still alive.
“We are trying to help with what we can, but there is a lack of equipment,” said Carlos Borges, expressing frustration over the shortage of backhoes and other heavy machinery needed to move massive concrete slabs — the remains of what were once high-rise apartment buildings.
Borges and his team managed to pull three survivors from one building. Meanwhile, anxious family members gathered nearby, including a single mother waiting and hoping for news about her missing teenage son, as of Thursday morning.
Models from the U.S. Geological Survey suggested the final death toll from Wednesday’s twin quakes — which struck in and around the capital city of Caracas — could climb beyond 10,000. The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez has so far confirmed nearly 200 fatalities and 1,520 people injured.
La Guaira, a popular beach destination and the hardest-hit city in the country, along with Moron — located near the earthquakes’ epicenter — were left largely on their own amid limited government assistance.
“Is it not possible to call in the military? Everyone come, come and pitch in. Put them in an armored vehicle and come help the people. Find tractors wherever you can,” pleaded Argenis Martinez, a La Guaira resident searching through rubble for a missing relative in the Los Corales neighborhood.
Despite a shutoff of domestic gas service, some debris caught fire overnight. Frightened residents — many with no safe place to go — gathered in the streets or stared into the ruins of destroyed buildings, searching for any sign of life.
The government reported that approximately 250 buildings had been damaged or destroyed, mostly in La Guaira. Officials said aid was on the way from Spain, the United States, Mexico, and Qatar, and called on private businesses to loan heavy equipment such as backhoes to support rescue operations.
In other parts of La Guaira, neighbors recovered two bodies from a home — one of them a young girl — while also managing to rescue a mother and her two children, injured but alive, from the wreckage of an apartment building.
Reuters journalists on the scene observed members of a colectivo — motorcycle groups aligned with the ruling party that have long faced accusations of targeting anti-government demonstrators — helping with rescue efforts at at least one location.
“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 had also lost her job just a few months earlier.
Reports of looting also emerged from parts of La Guaira, where people were searching for food and water. A Reuters team witnessed looting at a minimum of two stores in the area.
The city’s Jose Maria Vargas Hospital was overwhelmed with the injured, with some patients receiving care outside the building as police worked to control access. Hospital officials declined to provide information to reporters.
“It’s a tragedy,” said Beatriz Rodriguez, 60, whose nephew had both legs amputated at the hospital after being crushed in the quakes. A six-year-old nephew was also killed.
Venezuela’s armed forces announced they are deploying field hospitals to La Guaira capable of performing emergency surgeries. A Reuters team in the city Thursday spotted a military convoy near the local stadium engaged in aid operations.
Hospitals in other affected areas were also stretched beyond their limits. At a hospital in Moron, Dr. Augusto Ramirez was working through a 24-hour emergency shift and found himself running dangerously low on even the most basic supplies.
“We need blood pressure monitors, gauze, thermometers, gloves, plaster, painkillers — everything,” Ramirez told Reuters.
Along with two other doctors and additional staff, Ramirez had treated 112 patients since the earthquakes collapsed homes and knocked out electricity and water service in the town. Nine people have died from skull fractures and other injuries — including three children.
