Venezuela: Death toll nears 2,000 as rescue hopes fade
At least 1,943 people have died in Venezuela's twin earthquakes, with 43,000 still missing. Rescue operations have slowed as the 72-hour survival window closes, and aid agencies warn of worsening hunger and disease.
Rescuers in Venezuela raced to find survivors on Tuesday, nearly a week after twin earthquakes devastated parts of the country. According to numbers collated by the Venezuelan government, opposition, UNICEF, and NASA, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, striking just seconds apart, killed at least 1,943 people, injured more than 10,500, left about 16,000 homeless, and damaged 59,000 buildings. Over 6,400 people have been rescued, but an estimated 43,000 remain missing. Around 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Rescue operations
However, the pace of rescues has slowed sharply as the critical survival window of 72 hours has closed. Rescuers are hoping to find survivors, but now are also looking for the dead. On Tuesday, rescue teams from Ecuador and the US halted operations in Macuto, La Guaira, after they stopped receiving responses from a mother and her three children trapped beneath the rubble of a building after more than 40 hours of trying to get them out. "In the end, we believe the days have already passed and that what we will find now is death," said Major Jorge Montanero, leader of the Ecuadorian team. Hope still lingers in some cases as a Jordanian rescue team pulled a three-year-old boy alive from the rubble in Caracas on Tuesday, one of the few survivors found in recent days.
Aid agencies' warnings
Meanwhile, aid agencies warned of worsening hunger, disease, and an overwhelmed healthcare system. The World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for $50 million (€43.83 million) to provide emergency food assistance to up to 500,000 people over the next three months. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday of the strain on Venezuela's healthcare system. WHO said at least three health centers were critically damaged and six others only partially functional. Christian Lindmeier, the WHO spokesperson, sounded the alarm over the spread of measles, malaria, yellow fever, and dengue among the thousands of displaced due to lack of sanitary facilities and low inoculation rates.
