Emotional Rescues After the Earthquakes in Venezuela
During the first four days
HAVANA TIMES – Seeing people emerge alive from beneath the rubble has been among the most moving sights of these past few days. Members of Spain’s Military Emergency Unit deployed in Venezuela rescued a person alive on Saturday after the individual had remained trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building for nearly 72 hours following the earthquakes of June 24.
According to Spain’s Ministry of Defense, the rescue took place in the Vistamar residential area of La Guaira, one of the regions hardest hit by the earthquakes.
That area was selected as the base of operations for the 59 members of the Military Emergency Unit sent to Venezuela to participate in the emergency response and assist in the search and rescue of victims.
An 18-Day-Old Baby and His Mother See the Light Again
Another rescue that has deeply moved people was that of an 18-day-old baby who was pulled from the rubble together with his mother in La Guaira. The rescue took place 32 hours after both had been trapped beneath several concrete slabs inside a building in La Guaira, according to local media reports.
These rescues occurred amid the tragedy caused by the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24th, a national holiday when thousands of vacationers had traveled to La Guaira state to enjoy its beaches. The area became the epicenter of the greatest concentration of collapsed buildings, with dozens of structures brought down along the coastal region alone.
Marlene Angulo Emerged from the Rubble Asking for a Coca-Cola
Members of the rescue team from El Salvador pulled Marlene Angulo from the collapsed Nautilus building in La Guaira. According to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, as reported in a video by the Mexican newspaper El Universal, the first thing Marlene asked for after being rescued was a Coca-Cola.
Another woman who had been trapped for 60 hours in the same Nautilus building was also rescued by the Salvadoran team.
The Search Continues
Venezuela continued searching for survivors on Sunday following Wednesday’s twin earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, with a larger deployment of heavy machinery to clear the rubble from collapsed buildings and the arrival of additional rescue teams from other countries.
Early Sunday morning, a delegation from India arrived to set up a field hospital in La Guaira state, the area hardest hit by the disaster and officially declared a disaster zone.
As of Saturday, the disaster had claimed 1,430 lives, with 3,238 people injured and 3,142 families displaced, according to the latest official report provided by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez. [The government has not given statistics on the number of missing.]
He also reported that 432 aftershocks had been recorded as of Saturday.
First published in Spanish by Efecto Cocuyo and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.