Venezuela: Neighbors Try to Rescue Survivors
Catia La Mar on the north coast was hit especially hard
The area of Catia La Mar, in La Guaira, was severely hit as residents wait for rescue teams to arrive.
HAVANA TIMES – The first press reports from La Guaira state show the devastation suffered by this coastal region, located just 20 minutes northwest of Caracas.
According to Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, this region has so far been the hardest hit by the earthquakes. She declared it a “natural disaster zone due to the number of buildings that collapsed,” and in areas such as Catia La Mar, rescue teams have still not arrived.
Rodriguez reported on Thursday that the death toll had risen from 32 to 164, while the number of injured increased from 700 to 971 as a result of the two earthquakes that struck several Venezuelan states on Wednesday, prompting the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency.
A dispatch from the EFE news agency shows the shattered buildings—many of them apartment complexes built under the Misión Vivienda public housing program—and records the testimony of local residents.
No Shelters
Firefighters are overwhelmed, and there is also a shortage of heavy machinery needed to clear the rubble.
Mothers, sisters, uncles, and husbands weep for loved ones trapped beneath collapsed buildings, while others remain in shock, with no idea what they will do next.
Nor do they know where shelters have been established.
Security force patrols are driving through the streets, but they are offering no instructions.
Along El Ejército Avenue in Catia La Mar, nearly every building has been damaged. Smoke continues to rise from some structures, and a municipal market was consumed by flames.
On Thursday morning, a crowd gathered outside a bakery hoping to receive food after several businesses were looted during the early morning hours.
“It can’t be explained,” 45-year-old shop owner Ana Echeverría told EFE. “Everything freezes in a matter of seconds.”
She watched her business collapse during the earthquakes.
“I was able to evacuate my staff because I happened to have my phone in my hand, and it alerted me: ‘Earthquake—Curaçao, Caracas, alert.’ We managed to get out. Thank God no one was injured,” she said.
But immediately after the earthquakes, people came and looted the food from her business.
“People wanted food because they had nothing. It was horrible, just horrible,” she said, sitting in a chair in front of her destroyed shop alongside her teenage daughter.
The city has no electricity or telephone service. It is virtually isolated, as access roads have also begun to be closed.
First published in Spanish by Efecto Cocuyo and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.