Strong earthquakes kill scores in Venezuela, emergency declared

A Caracas resident said he “started to pray” as the first earthquake hit Venezuela, then grabbed a wall while his building began to fall apart. Officials declared a state of emergency after twin quakes killed at least 164 people, injured nearly 1,000 and left rescue crews racing through collapsed buildings and shut airports.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake struck at about 6:04 p.m. local time on June 24 with a magnitude of 7.2. Less than a minute later, a stronger magnitude 7.5 quake hit at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometers, with its epicenter 16 kilometers southwest of Morón on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, roughly west of Caracas. The short gap between the shocks left little or no time for evacuations, scientists said.

In Caracas, residents poured into the streets as buildings collapsed in the capital and other cities. The country’s main airport, Maiquetía International Airport, was closed after the quakes, adding to the disruption across the country. The destruction landed on a public holiday marking a key 1821 victory in Venezuela’s independence struggle, deepening the shock in a city already rattled by the scale of the damage.

The death toll was expected to rise. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency, while the U.S. Geological Survey warned that high casualties and damage were probable and that the disaster was likely widespread. Its modeling suggested thousands may have been killed. Emile Okal, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University, said, “We expect it to get worse.”

The United States said it was sending help. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was deploying search teams, medical resources and humanitarian aid, and a State Department official said Rubio called Rodríguez to offer full U.S. assistance. El Salvador also offered help as rescue operations moved into a race against time amid fears that more victims remained trapped under debris.

The immediate toll has turned the quakes into a test of Venezuela’s building safety and emergency response capacity, with the collapse of structures, the airport shutdown and the rapid spread of damage exposing how vulnerable the country remained when the ground began to move.