More than 1,400 people have died in Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes struck the country on Wednesday, June 24, with international rescue teams continuing to arrive as search and recovery efforts enter their fourth day.
The death toll was updated on June 27, while emergency teams kept up search operations along the hardest hit stretches of coastline.
The government says hundreds to thousands of people remain missing or trapped under rubble. However, a website set up by the opposition for people to report missing relatives says more than 55,000 people remain unaccounted for.
The rising death toll comes as rescue teams spread out across La Guaira state and parts of Caracas. For days, families and volunteers have worked alongside each other to search for survivors and recover bodies from the wreckage, with many complaining of a shortage of heavy equipment and little government presence in some areas.
Officials say more than 1,600 foreign rescue workers have already arrived in Venezuela, with more teams on the way, in response to Wednesday’s earthquakes and the hundreds of aftershocks that followed.
In Catia La Mar, one of the worst hit areas of La Guaira state, a US helicopter dropped off a rescue team in a dust filled area before flying back to bring in another group.
Officials have restricted access to La Guaira and are controlling traffic on the main road from Caracas, saying congestion has slowed emergency vehicles. Civilians who are not part of an official rescue team need documentation to pass through checkpoints.
Electricity is gradually being restored across the region. Venezuela’s power grid, weakened by years of underinvestment and economic sanctions, regularly suffers faults that cause hours long blackouts in some areas every day.
The US Geological Survey estimates the death toll could eventually exceed 10,000 following the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, which would make this one of the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the past century, reported Matichon.
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