Nearly a week into a search most had begun to fear was turning from rescue to recovery, Venezuela got a moment of relief.
A child found alive
A boy believed to be about three years old was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed house in Caracas on Monday, roughly six days after the earthquakes struck, in an operation that an official from the country's Public Security Directorate said took rescuers about three hours, ABC News reported. The child was given first aid at the scene and taken to a hospital; his condition was not immediately disclosed. The Herald is not naming the child. Rescue specialists note that while the first 72 hours are considered the critical window, voids in collapsed buildings can sometimes sustain survivors for far longer. "We always maintain hope," Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said in remarks on state television, per Al Jazeera, saying operations would not be suspended.
The earthquakes
The disaster began on the evening of June 24, when two powerful earthquakes — measured at roughly magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 — struck within about a minute of each other along a fault system in northwestern Venezuela, according to the U.S. Geological Survey as cited in news reports. Seismologists described it as among the strongest to hit the country in more than a century. The shaking brought down hundreds of buildings in Caracas and the coastal city of La Guaira and damaged the country's main international airport, and more than 100 aftershocks have followed.
The toll
Authorities have given preliminary and shifting figures. Officials announced a death toll of at least 1,719 on state television on June 29, and tallies have continued to rise since; tens of thousands of people remain listed as missing, though the exact count has varied across official statements. The Herald is reporting these figures as preliminary and attributing them to authorities, who caution they are expected to change as searches continue.
An international effort — with Angelenos on the ground
More than 50 countries sent rescue personnel or supplies, and tens of thousands of Venezuelan emergency workers were joined by thousands of foreign specialists and scores of search-dog teams, Al Jazeera reported. The United States deployed three urban search-and-rescue teams — including one from Los Angeles County — along with heavy equipment and a pledge of humanitarian aid, Newsweek reported; U.S. teams were credited with pulling an infant and her mother alive from the debris earlier in the operation. The quakes struck a country already strained by years of economic crisis, where informal housing and uneven enforcement of building codes left many structures vulnerable. For the families still waiting at collapsed sites across the capital, Monday's rescue of one small child was, for a few hours, a reason to keep hoping.
