At least 164 people have died and 971 have been injured after a pair of powerful earthquakes VenezuelaActing President Delcy Rodríguez said Thursday, adding that rescue teams are rushing to the worst-hit areas to free people trapped under the rubble.
Wednesday evening with magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes were among the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region. The country’s main airport was damaged and closed, while buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, some 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Television broadcasts on Thursday showed rescue workers using power tools to access piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Panicked residents of the capital poured into the streets and after the earthquakes many people walked through the debris in search of the missing among collapsed buildings and downed electricity poles.
Footage on state television showed three children, covered in dust but alive, being pulled from the rubble in La Guaira state, which Rodríguez described as a “disaster zone” and one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquakes due to the large number of collapsed buildings.
Rodríguez said authorities were moving rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which is north of Caracas on the coast. Officials were trying to make the most of the daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed to be trapped under the rubble, she said.
“Dozens of buildings have collapsed there … and we are currently carrying out intensive rescue operations to save lives,” Rodríguez said.
Video shared online appeared to show dozens of people, some lying on the ground and others in hospital beds, being treated outside a hospital in La Guaira.
While Venezuela is located near numerous fault lines, its position on the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
Rodríguez called on businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations, adding that United Nations-certified search and rescue teams were en route to Venezuela.
Residents fled their homes in panic
During the quakes, people ran from swaying buildings in Caracas, many visibly shocked when they turned around to see collapsed walls that left furniture visible from the street. Columns of dust rose in two normally busy neighborhoods in the capital.
“It started gently and then it gradually grew, and in the end, we all had to leave our homes, go outside and come together,” said Caracas resident Hector Ricci.
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Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged people to stay outside as aftershocks could further damage structures, and many people stood on the streets for hours, some sitting on the ground hugging pets as dust gathered around them. Others spent the night in parked cars, subway stations and other public places.
Parts of the capital lost power and cellphone coverage, and the quakes damaged and closed Simón Bolívar International Airport, the country’s main airport, Rodríguez said.
In Caracas, subway services were suspended and natural gas was shut off, she said. Classes will also be canceled for several days, and the Ministry of Education said some school buildings will be used as shelters and donation centers.
Roberto Gamas, another Caracas resident, said the building he was in “shook from side to side. Unreal. The force was too strong.”
The lack of cellphone signal in parts of Venezuela deepened the anxiety of many families, especially those among the more than 7.7 million people who have fled the country during its protracted crisis and have struggled to reach relatives inside the country.
On Thursday, many people took to social media asking for help finding loved ones, posting photos of missing relatives and their last known whereabouts.
Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, herself in exile, sent congratulations to X for “strength, calm and solidarity”.
Venezuela was hit twice by major earthquakes
The US Geological Survey said the first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2, struck west of Moroni on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas. It had a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles).
The USGS reported a magnitude 7.5 earthquake just one minute later, with a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) and an epicenter 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Moroni.
Some governments offered help
Rodríguez declared the state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was setting up a $200 million reconstruction fund for hospitals and homes damaged by the earthquakes and had instructed the economy and finance ministers to oversee the effort.
Aid offers coming from countries around the world.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”
“We’re going to have a whole of government response,” Rubio said Thursday in Bahrain. “It’s going to be big. It’s going to be fast. It’s going to be effective.”
He added that one of the runways at Caracas International Airport was cracked by the earthquake, making it difficult for planes to land there.
Rodríguez – who became interim president after a US military operation captured her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to the US to stand trial – thanked US President Donald Trump. She said in a later X post that she spoke to Rubio on the phone without elaborating. She also expressed thanks to the leaders of various nations who have sent messages of support and offers of help.
Ecuador ordered humanitarian aid, and Rodríguez said Qatar, Mexico and El Salvador had already sent rescue personnel.
“We send you all our solidarity and prayers. Stay strong, Venezuela,” El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, once diametrically opposed to Venezuela’s government, wrote in a post on X.
The earthquakes were felt in the wider region
Buildings in Manaus, Belem and Macapa in Brazil’s Amazon were evacuated, TV Globo reports. Earthquakes were also felt in the Caribbean and northeastern regions of Colombia.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued several tsunami warnings that were quickly lifted.
While uncommon in Venezuela, earthquakes are frequent along the Pacific coast, including in Mexico and Chile, both of which lie along the seismically active tectonic belt known as the Ring of Fire, an area the USGS says is responsible for 90 percent of earthquakes.
