Hope fades for Venezuela Quake survivors as rescue teams shift focus to recovery

Rescue teams in Venezuela are losing hope of finding more survivors of the twin earthquakes that struck the country last week, as hours of exhausting work searching for victims beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings yield increasingly grim results.

Rescue teams in Venezuela are losing hope of finding more survivors of the twin earthquakes that struck the country last week, as hours of exhausting work searching for victims beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings yield increasingly grim results. Rescue teams from Ecuador and the US halted operations early on Tuesday in Macuto, a town in La Guaira state the area hardest hit by the June 24 earthquakes after more than 40 hours of work, when they stopped receiving responses from a mother and her three children trapped beneath a nine-story building.

“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 EQ11 team from Guayaquil, Ecuador. He stood amid rubble after cutting through four concrete slabs of the building in an effort to locate the four trapped victims, adding that “unfortunately, things haven’t developed favourably.”

The devastation is staggering. NASA estimates that some 59,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the twin earthquakes, which hit just seconds apart with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The widespread destruction can be seen from space. Not all collapsed buildings have had professional rescue teams on site, with relatives and neighbours working to remove debris to pull out survivors or bodies, according to survivors and residents from various areas.

At a makeshift morgue in La Guaira, set up at what is usually the state’s major port, families have been waiting for hours to formally identify remains. Andrea Montilla sat in a plastic chair awaiting family members to identify the remains of her cousin and his grandmother. “It’s been so painful, a very long wait,” she said, adding her cousin’s mother is still missing.

The World Health Organisation has warned that Venezuela’s healthcare system is under significant strain, with at least three health centres critically damaged and six others damaged or only partially functional. The thousands of people displaced by the quakes are also at risk of disease outbreaks like yellow fever and dengue, especially given relatively low vaccination coverage, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.

Washington has sent 89 metric tonnes of essential supplies to Venezuela, the US embassy in Caracas said. “Our team in Venezuela is working intensively on setting up the emergency field hospital,” the embassy said. “Very soon, we will be able to provide” critical medical care to those in need. As the search and rescue operations wind down, the focus shifts to recovery and the long, painful process of rebuilding lives and communities shattered by one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the country in recent history.