Rescuers pull survivors from Venezuela quake rubble as death toll tops 1,400

Search teams rescued 33 people from the rubble on Saturday as Venezuela’s death toll from Wednesday’s twin earthquakes climbed above 1,400. By Sunday, authorities had put the toll at 1,450, with tens of thousands still missing or unaccounted for in a disaster centered on the coastal state of La Guaira.

The hardest-hit areas in La Guaira, including Caraballeda, drew an influx of foreign teams that joined local volunteers who had already spent days digging through collapsed homes and apartment blocks. More than 1,600 to 2,000 rescue workers from abroad arrived as hundreds of aftershocks rattled the coast and complicated searches in neighborhoods where residents were still calling for silence to hear tapping from below the debris. Sebastian Eugster, the leader of a Swiss rescue team, said the odds of finding survivors drop sharply after about 72 hours under rubble, a mark that had already passed for most of the damaged neighborhoods by Sunday.

Among the rescues was an infant pulled alive by U.S. rescuers. A Colombian rescue team found an 11-year-old boy after a scanner located him about 3 meters, or roughly 10 feet, below the surface, and Mexican crews pulled another 11-year-old from the ruins in Caraballeda. A U.S. rescue team from Virginia also pulled a father and son from the wreckage on Sunday morning.

The government said about 774 buildings were badly damaged and 189 collapsed outright. In Caracas neighborhoods such as Los Palos Grandes, San Bernardino and Chacao, families and volunteers worked with hand tools, drills and scanners, while large screens were used to display photos of the missing. The government initially thanked civilian volunteers, then tightened access to roads leading to La Guaira after saying traffic was slowing emergency vehicles and that only accredited people could use the roadway.

Opposition-linked trackers put the number of people unaccounted for at just under 50,000 on Sunday, down from 55,000 the day before. The government said only that hundreds were missing or trapped, while the United States and the European Union announced emergency assistance and relief packages.