The death toll in Venezuela’s twin earthquake disaster has reached 1,430, and millions more were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs, as the United Nations estimated damage worth $6.7 billion in the country.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez provided the latest official toll on Saturday, saying that 3,238 people had also been injured. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher warned a day earlier that the death toll could continue to rise, adding that more than 50,000 people were missing.
Facing public outrage at the response by local officials, US-backed interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez said the country was “not alone”.
The United States said one runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport was now functioning and that C-17 US military planes were landing there. At the same time, a naval ship had arrived off the coast.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said search-and-rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilised to help find survivors.
But the search for survivors saw desperate attempts by residents to claw away rubble from apartment buildings that collapsed in Wednesday’s double-quakes. Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters are the key, narrow window for finding the living.
There was joy in the hardest-hit coastal area of La Guaira, north of Caracas, when locals pulled an infant alive out of the wreckage on Friday, some 32 hours after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors.
In one social media video, a man welled up in tears as he held the baby in his arms.
$6.7 billion in physical damage
The United Nations estimated that earthquakes caused $6.7 billion in physical damage, equivalent to six percent of GDP.
The preliminary assessment is based on seismic modelling, satellite imagery and population data. It accounts for losses to assets, including housing, but does not cover wider economic disruption from Wednesday’s disaster, the UN Development Programme said in a statement.
UNDP said that the back-to-back quakes hit major population and economic centres near Venezuela’s northern coast, including the capital Caracas and the states of La Guaira, Carabobo, Miranda, Yaracuy and Aragua.
