Venezuelans dig through quake rubble as death toll climbs

Residents in La Guaira kept digging through collapsed concrete by hand as Venezuela’s earthquake death toll climbed and official rescue capacity was overwhelmed. In neighborhoods hit hardest by the twin June 24 quakes, volunteers and families searched for the missing with little heavy equipment in sight, turning streets and housing blocks into improvised rescue zones.

The government said 172 people remained trapped, 920 were dead and 3,360 were injured after the shocks devastated Caracas, La Guaira, Carabobo and surrounding communities. The government said more than 50,000 people were missing. U.N. agencies had confirmed at least 235 deaths, while U.N. officials said as many as 6.8 million people could be affected and estimated direct damage at about $6.7 billion.

Jennifer Palacios, 25, said her 6-year-old son and five other relatives were still buried in the Hugo Chávez housing complex in the city. In Caraballeda and other coastal areas, people worked through unstable debris with bare hands as official crews arrived slowly.

The disaster began with a magnitude 7.2 foreshock and a magnitude 7.5 mainshock 39 seconds later, centered near Morón in Carabobo at a depth of 10 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey said the larger quake was 16 kilometers southwest of Morón and the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century, and the largest in the region since the 1900 Caracas earthquake.

A weaker magnitude 4.9 aftershock was felt on June 26 in Caracas and Maracay while rescue work continued. Delcy Rodríguez first thanked volunteers, then told people to stay away from La Guaira because clogged roads were slowing response operations, and officials later closed roads except for official and registered response teams.