Published 13.01
The Venezuelan Grian Serrano has survived two natural disasters.
One in 1999, one in 2026 – both in La Guaira.
– It is a miracle from God, says the 46-year-old, who is now leaving the area.
He still has bruises all over his body.
So has eight-year-old son Gael and mother Ingrid Rochabrun, 69. All three were buried alive when the eight-storey building collapsed as a result of the twin earthquakes last week.
In pitch black darkness, Grian Serrano managed to climb up and then, with the help of two passers-by, rescue his son and mother.
There’s a reason he calls it all a miracle in an interview with AP news agency.
It is the second time he has survived a natural disaster in the small state.
Climbed onto the roof
In 1999, the Caribbean coast and also the state, which was then called Vargas, were devastated by extensive landslides. IN Venezuela it is known as the Vargas tragedy.
It started with lots of rain.
Then heavy downpours.
And then landslides, when the ground in the Ávila mountains gave way.
The then 20-year-old Grian Serrano was awakened by screams on the night of December 1999. Then he saw the devastation from his window.
Mud, boulders, trees, water. Everything fell towards the coastal cities, located on the narrow strip just below the mountains. People in cars, stuck in there, floated by, knocking and screaming for help, he tells AP.
He, the mother, the sister and the nanny got on the roof and made it.
782 people died, 2,000 were reported injured and as many as 250,000 residents saw their homes destroyed.
Now history repeats itself. At least 1,719 people have died and 5,034 have been injured following the twin earthquakes. About 50,000 are missing.
“Not normal”
La Guaira is a small, but important, state, as it houses, among other things, Venezuela’s international airport.
440,000 people live there, many of them poor and dependent on the tourism and trade that the coast and the airport bring.
Ángel Rangel, disaster specialist, who is leading the rescue operations in the country right now, tells AP that the state is built on unstable terrain, formed by mountain sediments. Many houses are also old and it is uncertain whether they are earthquake-proof at all.
It matters less to Grian Serrano.
He and his family have lost everything. Move to the capital Caracas, where the brother lives.
And he does not intend to return to La Guaira.
He is convinced: La Guaira rests under a curse.
– It is not normal for such terrible things to happen in the same place, he says.
