Rescue Efforts Continue in Venezuela After Powerful Earthquakes

Search and rescue operations were continuing Friday in Venezuela after a pair of major earthquakes struck the country and left thousands missing. In the past 24 hours, authorities confirmed about 235 deaths and reported more than 4,000 injuries in Caracas and in the state of La Guaira.

International assistance was arriving quickly. Switzerland said overnight that it was sending a rescue mission with 80 rescuers, 8 search dogs and 18 tons of equipment. El Salvador dispatched three planes carrying hundreds of rescue workers, who reached Caracas during the day and night to help locate and save the missing. Spain also sent a rescue unit to Venezuela with 59 personnel, eight dogs and additional equipment.

The earthquakes measured 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale. They caused several buildings to collapse and, according to estimates, may have inflicted economic damage worth billions of dollars, possibly tens of billions. The second quake was described as the strongest to hit Venezuela in 100 years.

A Caracas resident, Eldar Levy Pascal, told Kan News that the shaking was terrifying. “Everything shook, it was really, really frightening,” he said, adding that people fled their apartments in panic and that his own flat suffered cracked walls and damage. He also said he saw collapsed buildings nearby and that officials were still trying to understand the scale of the disaster. “They are trying to save people,” he said, predicting that “the horrible numbers of the dead” would start becoming clear the next day.