Venezuelan Jewish residents describe terror after deadly earthquakes

Jewish residents in Venezuela told N12 about the panic they felt during two powerful earthquakes that struck overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, causing widespread destruction across the country’s northern coast, including the capital, Caracas. The quakes collapsed buildings and, according to early estimates, may have killed anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 people.

Alais Farah said he was asleep in his apartment in Caracas when the shaking began. “It felt like being on a ship in the middle of a storm,” he said, adding that the building shook for a long time, stopped briefly, and then shook again. “You see the roof that could fall on you and the walls moving. Things fell,” he said.

Bnei Mizrahi described a similar scene of severe damage around him, with buildings falling, large cracks in walls, and objects inside homes crashing to the floor. “It was very strong. Buildings around us fell. It was very hard to move because you lose your balance,” he said. Both men said the fear was overwhelming, with Mizrahi saying, “You can’t do anything. You have no control over anything.”

The two said no one in the Jewish community was physically hurt, and that members had moved to an open area away from buildings. Farah said there is still concern about another earthquake. The US Geological Service said the death toll was likely to range between 10,000 and 100,000. Donald Trump wrote on Truth that there were a “devastating number of dead in Venezuela” and said the US was ready to help. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the government would declare a state of emergency, that foreign rescue teams were on their way, and that at least 32 people had been confirmed dead and 700 injured.