Venezuela earthquakes kill hundreds, rescue crews search for survivors

The main airport in La Guaira was closed and dozens of buildings had collapsed after twin earthquakes struck off Venezuela’s northern coast west of Caracas, leaving rescue crews to search rubble-strewn neighborhoods for survivors. Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said the death toll had risen to about 235, with roughly 4,300 people injured and thousands still missing.

The first quake hit on June 24 at about magnitude 7.2, followed about 39 seconds later by a larger magnitude 7.5 tremor. The U.S. Geological Survey issued red PAGER alerts for both events, and its predictive modeling suggested the disaster could have killed thousands of people, with a substantial probability that fatalities would exceed 10,000. The scale of the warnings matched the extent of the damage on the ground, where collapsed structures and blocked streets slowed access to trapped residents.

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said La Guaira appeared to be the hardest-hit state, and the coastal state has become the center of the emergency because it sits near Caracas and contains the country’s main airport. State media showed residents digging through concrete and twisted metal while relatives searched for missing family members. The devastation reopened old wounds in a place already associated with the 1999 mudslide, one of Venezuela’s worst natural disasters.

The earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century, and the country’s response quickly drew outside help. The U.S. State Department said it was deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team and urban search-and-rescue teams, while U.S. Southern Command said it was moving ships and aircraft into the Caribbean to support relief operations. With the airport shut and whole blocks reduced to debris, the recovery now depends on whether aid can reach communities fast enough to keep the death toll from rising further.