Efforts to rescue Venezuela quake victims grow more desperate
The miracle rescue of a 21-year-old four days after an earthquake razed buildings in Venezuela has buoyed workers as the desperate search for survivors continues.
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Rescuers pulled a 21-year-old man out of the rubble of a collapsed building Monday in La Guaira, the hardest-hit state in earthquake-shattered Venezuela, where he had been trapped for 106 hours.
The rescue operation lasted 43 hours, President Delcy Rodríguez said on social media, where she shared video of workers hoisting the man, Aaron Levi Cantillo, onto a stretcher.
Onlookers erupted in cheers.
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The possibility of finding more survivors continued to fuel rescuers digging through collapsed buildings in northern Venezuela on Monday, even as the search was growing increasingly desperate with every passing hour.
The death toll from Wednesday’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes rose to 1719 people, with more than 5000 injured and 15,800 displaced, the Venezuelan government said Monday.
But the official numbers are probably a vast undercount. Doctors have said that in La Guaira officials have been processing about 750 bodies each day.
United Nations Venezuela coordinator Gianluca Rampolla said the UN had procured 10,000 body bags because many collapsed buildings have yet to be fully excavated.
“That is the applying assumption; it’s very sad,” he said adding that there was no definitive number of people missing.
Still, Rampolla said, he was encouraged that rescuers found seven people alive Sunday, past the 72-hour window that disaster-response experts consider critical for finding survivors.
Venezuela has been jolted by more than 600 aftershocks since last week’s earthquakes, including a 4.6-magnitude quake Monday that prompted officials to shut down the subway in Caracas, the capital, for inspection.
Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of the National Assembly, said the government had received no immediate reports of additional damage. But the shaking has underscored the ongoing danger facing residents and rescuers who have been combing through the rubble of flattened homes and businesses.
Twenty-seven countries have sent more than 2000 rescuers and 160 dogs to help find survivors, Rampolla said.
Rodríguez, whose government has been criticised for not doing enough to respond to the disaster, said the rescue efforts would continue.
The government has also announced plans to create two commissions: one to oversee temporary shelters and the other to review the safety of roads, bridges and buildings, many of which were made of brittle concrete without adequate steel reinforcement.
Originally published on The New York Times
