标签： South America

In the wake of two powerful consecutive earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday evening, local communities launched urgent, grassroots search efforts Thursday, digging through collapsed rubble by hand to locate missing loved ones as officials confirmed a rising death toll and thousands of injuries across the affected region.

By late Thursday, Venezuela’s Health Minister Carlos Alvarado confirmed to state media that the official casualty count had climbed to 235 fatalities, with at least 4,300 people injured. With thousands still reported unaccounted for and search operations continuing around the clock, authorities warn the final death toll is likely to rise further.

Measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude respectively, the back-to-back quakes rank among the strongest seismic events to hit Venezuela in more than a century, with shaking felt across the entire Caribbean region. The coastal state of La Guaira, located just north of the capital Caracas, bore the brunt of the destruction, bearing the highest concentration of damage and casualties. As the site of Venezuela’s main international airport, facility closures from structural damage have created major logistical barriers for incoming aid and rescue teams.

Survivors described scenes of utter devastation Thursday morning: entire buildings reduced to skeletal frames, multi-story structures flattened, cracked roads split open, and debris scattered across residential neighborhoods. State television broadcast dramatic rescue footage, including the extraction of a woman who survived being trapped under a concrete slab, with only her foot visible to rescuers before she was pulled free alive. But many residents reported a noticeable lack of official government search teams outside the capital in the critical early hours after the disaster.

Dayana Delgado, a mother of three whose 8-year-old son remains missing, publicly questioned where the heavy rescue machinery promised by government officials had gone, noting that local residents were leading the search through crumpled building remains on their own. “I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” Delgado said. In one harrowing scene, a mother collapsed in uncontrollable grief after the bodies of her 3-year-old and 10-year-old children were recovered from the rubble, while other survivors screamed names of missing loved ones or stood in stunned silence.

Hundreds of Caracas residents spent Wednesday night huddled together in open public spaces including parks and parking lots, too afraid to return to damaged or structurally unstable buildings. Families posted handwritten missing person flyers with photos of lost relatives, while Venezuelans living abroad struggled to contact family back home after widespread damage disrupted cellular and phone service across the hardest-hit areas.

La Guaira has a long history of catastrophic natural disasters: in 1999, devastating mudslides killed thousands of people in the region, in one of Venezuela’s deadliest natural events on record. Venezuelan authorities have confirmed they are reallocating rescue teams from across the country to reinforce search efforts in La Guaira. Cristian Carreño, a La Guaira resident, surveyed his damaged apartment building, which now leans dangerously to one side after the quakes. “I lost everything,” Carreño said. “There are people still inside, I imagine, that couldn’t get out. It’s incredibly devastating.”

Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendaño, who was navigating through wreckage in search of survivors, encountered a dead body on his path before spotting a trapped woman signaling for help with her hand. “May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” Mendaño said. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do without proper equipment.”

The disaster comes as Venezuela already grapples with more than a decade of severe economic instability and deep political division, adding an enormous new challenge to acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who took office in January following the detention of former President Nicolás Maduro. Rodríguez, whose governing movement faces widespread questioning of its legitimacy from much of the Venezuelan public, declared a national state of emergency in a national address Wednesday night, announcing the creation of a $200 million reconstruction fund earmarked for damaged hospitals and residential buildings. On Thursday, she made a public appeal to private businesses to donate heavy construction equipment to support rescue operations. “We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” Rodríguez said.

Geoscientists explain that while Venezuela sits adjacent to multiple tectonic fault lines, its location straddling the South American and Caribbean plates means major earthquakes are far less common here than in other high-risk parts of Latin America. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed both quakes were centered near Morón, a coastal Caribbean city roughly 170 kilometers west of Caracas. Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil, noted that the consecutive timing and shallow depth of the quakes amplified their destructive force dramatically. “It is as if I am screaming and then someone starts screaming, too. That amplifies the vibration and adds to the potential hazard,” Ferreira explained.

Shortly after United Nations officials called on the Venezuelan government to lift social media restrictions to allow citizens to access life-saving emergency information, platform X (formerly Twitter) was restored for users across the country. The site had been blocked by Maduro’s administration since August 2024, implemented to suppress information sharing among opponents of his contested claim of victory in July’s presidential election.

Multiple foreign governments have already pledged emergency assistance to Venezuela, with leaders from Mexico, Qatar, Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Canada confirming aid shipments are en route. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke with Rodríguez shortly after the disaster, said the U.S. was immediately deploying emergency support, while acknowledging that the closure of the main international airport creates significant logistical hurdles. “We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big; it’ll be fast; and it’ll be effective,” Rubio said.

By Thursday, rescue teams from Mexico, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic had already arrived in the country, alongside an aid flight carrying emergency supplies from Mexico. “No country is prepared to provide the full response that’s needed. That’s what neighboring countries are there for,” said Dominican Air Force Major Carlos Olivares.

Venezuela’s large global diaspora has also mobilized to support relief efforts. In Ecuador, Venezuelan expat Félix Rodríguez has turned his retail store into a local donation collection point, receiving contributions from fellow Venezuelans and local Ecuadorians alike. “My business is always ready for whatever Venezuela needs,” Rodríguez said, adding he wished all affected Venezuelans “faith and fortitude.”

Reporting was contributed by AP journalists across multiple international locations including Mexico City, Quito, Bogota, Sao Paulo, San Juan, Buenos Aires, San Diego and New York.

One day after a pair of powerful back-to-back earthquakes rocked Venezuela, rescue teams are working tirelessly across affected regions to search for survivors even as communities across the country come together to grieve and offer prayers for those impacted by the disaster. Reporting from the capital city of Caracas, BBC correspondent Vanessa Silva has documented the immediate aftermath of the tremors, which have left communities reeling from structural damage, disrupted basic services, and widespread uncertainty.

Emergency response crews have fanned out across hardest-hit neighborhoods, clearing rubble from collapsed buildings and checking damaged infrastructure to locate any people trapped following the quakes. Local volunteers have joined official rescue efforts, bringing supplies, medical support, and comfort to displaced residents who have been forced to leave their damaged homes. Across Caracas and surrounding areas, residents have gathered in small groups to share information about missing loved ones and offer prayers for the recovery effort, creating a wave of collective solidarity amid the chaos.

The successive tremors caught many residents off guard, with aftershocks continuing to keep communities on edge in the hours following the initial quakes. Authorities have urged residents to remain cautious as assessment teams work to map the full scale of damage to homes, roads, and public facilities. As the rescue operation moves into its second day, the focus remains on pulling survivors from damaged structures and providing critical aid to thousands of people affected by the seismic event.

On Wednesday, a rare and powerful double earthquake event, formally called an earthquake doublet, devastated northern Venezuela, leaving at least 188 people confirmed dead, more than 200 trapped under rubble, and over 1,500 injured. Thousands more are currently unaccounted for, with rescue officials warning that the death toll is almost certain to rise as search operations continue through collapsed infrastructure. One of the hardest-hit areas is La Guaira, a coastal region located just north of the capital city Caracas, where dozens of buildings have been completely leveled.

According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the two major seismic events struck just 39 seconds apart along the San Sebastian fault on Venezuela’s northern Caribbean coastline. The first, a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, originated 22 kilometers (14 miles) deep, 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas near the coastal town of Morón. Barely half a minute later, a stronger 7.5-magnitude mainshock hit 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep, just 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Morón. USGS experts confirmed that the back-to-back quakes, classified as a doublet due to their similar magnitude, close timing and proximity, resulted from shallow strike-slip faulting along the complex tectonic boundary between the Caribbean and South American plates. The event ranks among the most powerful seismic activity recorded in Venezuela in more than a century.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared La Guaira, which sits around 165 kilometers (103 miles) east of the mainshock’s epicenter, a full disaster zone. Authorities have deployed all available rescue resources from across the country to the region, where civilian volunteers and first responders have worked around the clock to pull survivors from crumbled concrete. Footage from the scene shows survivors covered in dust and blood emerging from rubble, while distraught families grieve outside flattened homes. Grief-stricken residents have posted hundreds of missing-person flyers with photos of lost loved ones, and shared handwritten lists of unaccounted-for names across social media and community boards in a frantic search for information.

Widespread damage extends far beyond La Guaira, reaching all the way into the capital Caracas and triggering evacuations as far away as Brazil’s Amazon region, more than 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the epicenter. In downtown Caracas, hundreds of residents spent the first night after the quake huddled in open public spaces including parks and parking lots, terrified to return to damaged, unstable structures for fear of aftershocks. Large swathes of the capital lost power and cellular connectivity immediately after the quake. Caracas’ main international airport sustained significant structural damage and has been closed to all traffic, subway operations across the city have been suspended, and natural gas service has been shut off as a safety precaution. Local officials have canceled classes at all schools for several days, repurposing the facilities as emergency public shelters and donation collection centers. In response to the disaster, Rodríguez announced the government has established a $200 million reconstruction fund to repair damaged hospitals and residential buildings.

The disaster comes as Venezuela faces already severe political and economic challenges, adding an unprecedented new crisis to Rodríguez’ tenure. Rodríguez, a former vice president, assumed office in January after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. authorities. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are currently jailed in New York City awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. Rodríguez inherited a nation that has struggled with crippling economic turmoil for more than a decade, and her government already faces deep political division: large segments of the Venezuelan population reject the legitimacy of her ruling movement, even as some of her former loyalists have criticized her leadership and recent diplomatic warming toward the U.S.

International support has already begun mobilizing to assist Venezuela’s response to the disaster. The U.S. government announced Thursday it would deploy two specialized urban search and rescue teams to the country, alongside $150 million in humanitarian aid distributed through independent nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The United Nations confirmed that international search and rescue teams are expected to begin arriving in the country within hours of the announcement. Additional aid pledges have come from Qatar and Mexico, among other nations. Meanwhile, the large Venezuelan diaspora in the U.S. — which counts more than 770,000 people, with large concentrated communities in Florida, Texas and Utah — has moved quickly to organize grassroots donation drives to support disaster survivors.

A string of significant seismic events stretching across three continents has put modern earthquake early warning (EEW) systems in the spotlight, demonstrating how mobile technology is buying vulnerable populations critical extra seconds to reach safety when shaking begins.

Over a single week in early June, seismic activity triggered alerts for millions of people across North America, South America and Asia. The sequence opened with a moderate quake rocking parts of California, United States, and closed with two powerful back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude striking northern Venezuela — one of the most intense seismic sequences to hit the South American nation in more than 100 years. The events came just weeks after a magnitude 6.5 quake near Mindanao in the Philippines claimed 37 lives. Even in nations without a national public EEW infrastructure, consumer mobile technology stepped in to deliver advance warnings to at-risk residents.

Today, more than a dozen nations and territories operate formal public EEW programs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), including the U.S., Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy and Taiwan. While Venezuela does not maintain a national system, many of its Android phone users still received advance warnings of the recent powerful quakes through Google’s crowdsourced Android Earthquake Alerts platform. For 39-year-old Caracas-based writer Pericles Sánchez, that advance notice meant enough time to get his entire family outside to safety before shaking reached his neighborhood. “It wasn’t until we were already outside that we started to feel it,” Sánchez said, adding his family’s home escaped structural damage.

On the U.S. West Coast, the USGS runs a dedicated EEW platform called ShakeAlert for California, Oregon and Washington, which distributes alerts through multiple channels including the state-run MyShake mobile app. When the recent moderate quake hit California, more than 4 million users received advance alerts through the interconnected system, according to USGS scientist Robert de Groot.

Though modern EEW technology is saving lives today, it remains a relatively new innovation that continues to evolve rapidly. The world’s first public EEW launched in Mexico in 1991, and the country now disseminates large quake alerts through broadcast networks, mobile apps and public alarm systems, alongside regular nationwide earthquake response drills to prepare residents. After the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 22,000 people and triggered the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, Japan dramatically expanded its EEW infrastructure to include offshore monitoring. Its cutting-edge Seafloor Observation Network for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (S-Net) uses thousands of miles of undersea cables and sensors to monitor activity along the offshore subduction zone where destructive quakes often originate. The system, widely regarded as the most sophisticated in the world, has added an extra 20 seconds of warning time for most quakes and cut tsunami alert delivery times by as much as 20 minutes. California’s MyShake app, launched in 2019, has pushed out 6.8 million alerts for 194 separate seismic events to date, state data shows.

All EEW systems operate on the same core scientific principle: earthquakes generate sequential waves that move at different speeds. Faster, lower-intensity P-waves arrive first, followed by far more dangerous, slower S-waves and finally the most destructive L-waves. Most traditional public systems use a network of ground-based seismometers to detect initial P-waves, rapidly process data to estimate the quake’s location and magnitude, and push alerts to at-risk regions before destructive shaking arrives. Alerts are distributed through multiple channels, including national Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) systems, dedicated mobile apps and regional public warning networks. Having overlapping distribution channels creates critical redundancy in case one system fails, de Groot explained. “It’s always good to have more than one way of getting alerts. It’s the reason why you carry a spare tire in your car or carry some small bills in your wallet because the ATM may not work,” he said.

Google’s Android system uses a different crowdsourced model that leverages built-in accelerometer sensors already included in every Android device — the same sensors that rotate a phone’s screen when the device is turned. When multiple stationary phones in one region detect P-wave activity, the data is sent to Google’s central processing center, which confirms the seismic event and pushes alerts to nearby users. This model allows EEW coverage to extend to nations that lack the funding or infrastructure to build a traditional national seismometer network.

Because alert signals travel at the speed of light — far faster than seismic waves move through the Earth’s crust — warning time correlates directly with distance from the quake’s epicenter. People closest to the epicenter typically get the shortest warning windows, sometimes only a few seconds or no warning at all before shaking begins, while people further away get more preparation time, almost always less than a minute. The level of detail included in alerts also varies by distribution channel: standard WEAs are limited to 90 characters broadcast directly from cell towers, while app-based alerts from platforms like MyShake or Google often include extra context such as the distance to the epicenter and estimated magnitude. All official alerts, regardless of format, include the universal safety instruction to “drop, cover, hold on.”

This reporting was compiled from contributions by journalists across the U.S. and Mexico, with on-the-ground sourcing from Venezuela and California.

In the wake of two catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes that left at least 188 people dead and hundreds more injured across Venezuela, the large Venezuelan diaspora community across the United States has mobilized at speed to organize urgent donation drives to support relief efforts on the ground.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors, which struck Wednesday evening, rank among the most powerful seismic events to hit Venezuela in over 100 years. The quakes inflicted severe structural damage to Simon Bolivar International Airport, Venezuela’s primary air gateway located in the capital Caracas, a critical blow that threatens to slow the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to affected regions. Graphic imagery from the disaster zone shows dust-covered, bleeding injured civilians, children and animals being pulled from collapsed concrete rubble, while thousands of people remain unaccounted for — leaving relatives living in the U.S. desperate for updates on their loved ones.

More than 770,000 Venezuelan-born people currently reside in the United States, with the largest concentration settled in Doral, a suburban city just outside Miami, Florida. Oscar Torres, a 28-year U.S. resident and sales manager based in Doral, has spent nearly a full day glued to a dedicated WhatsApp group connecting Venezuelan residents with their relatives abroad, tracking updates and coordinating donations.

“Already this morning, I was looking at the Doral group and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” Torres explained. “They’re talking about making the first shipment as soon as possible.” Torres still has extended family living in Caracas and the hard-hit city of Valencia, where a number of his relatives suffered minor injuries while fleeing damaged buildings. “Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” he said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.” Local Doral officials and Venezuelan advocacy organizations have amplified calls for donations across social media and official press conferences, with Torres planning to contribute cash to the relief effort.

Beyond Florida, other large Venezuelan communities in Texas have also sprung into action. In the Houston metropolitan area, where the western suburb of Katy has earned the nickname “Katyzuela” for its massive Venezuelan population, residents have leveraged Facebook groups and other social platforms to advertise local drop-off points for donations. The most urgent needs identified include first aid and medical supplies: gauze, bandages, antiseptic solutions, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers and blood pressure monitors are all high priority for aid shipments.

Daniel Arenas, a maritime industry consultant who relocated to Houston from Venezuela a decade ago, translated a Spanish donation call to English and shared it to his LinkedIn profile Thursday, urging a broader cross-section of the Houston community to contribute. “I came to this country ten years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

Arenas shared that his wife spent hours anxiously waiting for news after her aunt, a Caracas high-rise resident, sent a panicked voice note moments after the quakes hit. “She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas recounted. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.” The family was later able to re-establish contact with her aunt, bringing an end to the hours-long period of uncertainty.

The outpouring of organizing across U.S. Venezuelan communities comes as Venezuelan authorities assess the full scale of the disaster, with relief operations already facing logistical hurdles from damaged infrastructure.