Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000, and leaving thousands missing. The 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude tremors were among the strongest to hit the nation in over a century and were felt across the region.
Rescue Operations Underway
Rescue teams raced to the hardest-hit areas on Thursday, using power tools to work through rubble where buildings once stood. Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said authorities were shifting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, north of Caracas on the coast. She described La Guaira as a “disaster zone” due to the large number of collapsed buildings.
Footage on state TV showed three children, covered in dust but alive, pulled from the rubble in La Guaira state. Rodriguez urged teams to make the most of daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed trapped.
Impact and Damage
The country’s main airport was damaged and closed. Buildings were evacuated as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, about 1,700 km from Caracas. In Caracas, panicked residents poured into the streets as buildings swayed. Many walked among debris searching for missing loved ones amid collapsed walls and toppled electric poles.
“It started off gently and then gradually grew, and in the end, we all had to leave our houses, go outside and gather together,” Caracas resident Hector Ricci said.
Seismic Details
The US Geological Survey reported the first earthquake, magnitude 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 km west of Caracas, at a depth of 22 km. A minute later, a second 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck with a depth of 10 km, epicentre 16 km southwest of Moron. While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
