CARACAS, Venezuela — Massive search and rescue operations were underway in Venezuela on Friday as civilians and emergency workers rushed to find those trapped beneath the rubble more than a day after devastating twin earthquakes killed at least 920 people and injured at least 3,360 others, according to government officials.
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But time is starting to run out to ensure thousands still buried under the debris of crumbled buildings are found alive.
“The first few hours were the most important,” said Daniela Guerra, one of the many civilian volunteers who have been showing up to destroyed sites across Caracas to help with cleanup and find survivors.
“There were several moments in which we would ask for silence, and yell out, ‘Is anyone alive?’” Guerra said in Spanish while taking a break from rescue efforts Thursday afternoon.
Television footage showed emergency workers rescuing injured people and animals from collapsed buildings. Many were covered in dust and blood as distraught relatives cried out for loved ones and others frantically searched for more survivors.
Among those rescued from the rubble was Graciela Mora. Speaking to Noticias Telemundo from a stretcher, the woman said she gripped on to her doorframe so hard that her arm broke. Mora said her building crumbled on top of her so quickly she “didn’t even have time to cry.”
Complicating rescue efforts, she said, is the lack of supplies and equipment; in fact, some of the machinery brought for cleanup belonged to other civilians. Guerra said they initially began clearing rubble without gloves and some volunteers injured their hands in the process.
“Everything being done is with civilian assistance,” Guerra said, emphasizing the need for international help to save more lives.
In La Guaira, one of the areas hit hardest by the earthquakes, volunteers who lacked specialized machinery to rescue survivors heard a baby crying inside a collapsed building Thursday night. With their bare hands, they began clearing the rubble to reach the infant who appeared to be unharmed.
Other residents of La Guaira told NBC News on Friday afternoon they are already retrieving bodies from the rubble. A tarp covered a man’s corpse laying on the driveway of a collapsed home.
“They covered him up because he was about to burst,” one woman who did not want to be named said in Spanish.
On another crumbled house next door, the body of a woman lay on the front yard, covered with a tarp after civilians removed her from the rubble.
Residents had yet to recover the body of another young woman who neighbors said was pregnant. “They haven’t been able to get her out,” the woman said, “she’s still inside the house.”
