Venezuela faces its sixth day of rescue and repair after the double earthquake that shook the north of the country last Wednesday. According to the latest official balance of figures, there are already 1,943 people dead and 10,571 injured, as reported by the President of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez.
At this time, rescuers around the world are acting against the clock to try to find people alive under the rubble, although as the hours go by, the chances decrease. “Hope is never lost (…). We must continue,” Spanish soldier Alberto Vázquez said in statements to EFE.
Specifically, the team of military engineers specializing in structures, accompanied by eight dogs, is currently working in the state of La Guaira, near Caracas and the area most affected by the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes.
A first estimate of the damage
Precisely, a study carried out by NASA, specifically by Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University using data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 shows that the catastrophe could have left some 58,870 buildings damaged or destroyed throughout the affected region.
In the video you can see superimposed images of La Guaira, Caracas and other areas. Firstly, how those areas looked in the days before the double earthquake and, secondly, how everything has been reduced to rubble. The devastation in Maiquetia, La Guaira, Caraballeda or Macuto is striking, where there are barely any buildings left standing.
689 aftershocks since Wednesday
Last week’s earthquakes affected Caracas and six other states in the north of the country. The most affected region has been La Guaira, a coastal area that already experienced a tragedy due to a landslide in 1999 that left thousands of dead. After last Wednesday’s earthquakes, 689 aftershocks have been recorded.
Wednesday’s double earthquake is the deadliest that Venezuela has experienced in the last century. Fifty-nine years earlier, in July 1967, an earthquake occurred near Caracas in which 245 people died, thousands were injured, and the material damage was extensive.
