Deadly earthquakes devastate Venezuela, rescue crews search for survivors

Rescue crews and neighbors dug through collapsed buildings in northern Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes killed at least 235 people and injured at least 4,300. Photographer Adriana Loureiro Fernandez described a scene of shattered homes, blocked roads and families waiting for word on missing relatives as survivors searched the wreckage by hand.

The quakes struck Wednesday evening, June 24, and the shaking spread far beyond the hardest-hit zones around La Guaira and Caracas. People felt the tremors throughout the region, and evacuations reached as far away as Brazil’s Amazon. In the capital, the main airport was shuttered, adding another disruption to a response already slowed by damaged roads and unstable buildings.

On the ground, the destruction was immediate and personal. Rescue teams worked through collapsed concrete and twisted debris in northern Venezuela, where entire blocks were left open to the sky. In neighborhoods near Caracas, residents joined the search for neighbors and relatives, turning over slabs and calling into voids where apartments and houses had been. Thousands were still reported missing as the search continued.

Washington moved quickly to expand the response. The U.S. State Department said on June 25 that it was deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team and specialized urban search-and-rescue teams, while mobilizing $150 million in assistance for Venezuela. That package included $100 million for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Venezuela pooled fund, a sign that the immediate bottleneck was not only rescue but also getting food, medical support and emergency supplies into damaged communities.

The scale of the emergency reflects a country exposed to repeated seismic risk. GDACS and European Union / DG ECHO note that 80% of Venezuela’s population lives in active seismic zones. They also flagged a September 2025 quake episode in which 30,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking and as many as 246,000 to strong shaking, a reminder that one major rupture can quickly strain transport links, hospitals and aid routes across a wide stretch of the country.