CARACAS: The death toll from twin earthquakes that devastated Venezuela more than a week ago has risen to at least 2,295, officials said, as recovery crews increasingly abandon hope of finding more survivors and shift their focus to pulling bodies from the rubble.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said the number of confirmed dead had climbed steadily since the disaster struck on June 24, with more than 11,200 people also reported injured.
Tens of thousands remain unaccounted for, though officials have cautioned that figure is difficult to verify as the search effort moves from rescue to recovery.
Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Venezuela, said this week the toll would “unavoidably and sadly keep on growing” as search teams complete damage assessments across the affected region.
It may be recalled here that two powerful earthquakes, a magnitude 7.2 followed 39 seconds later by a 7.5, struck at around 6:04 p.m. local time on June 24. Their epicenters were in Yaracuy state, west of the capital Caracas, but the worst destruction was reported in La Guaira state on the northern coast. Seismologists have described the pair as among the most powerful to hit Venezuela in more than 100 years.
More than 6,400 people have been pulled from collapsed buildings alive, according to rescue officials, though the pace of survivor recoveries has slowed sharply since the critical 48-to-72-hour window after the quakes passed.
A three-year-old boy was rescued six days after the disaster, one of the last widely reported survivor finds.
Earlier UN estimates had put the number of missing at 40,000 to 50,000, though authorities have not issued an updated figure in recent days as the emphasis shifts toward recovery and relief operations.
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE, MILLIONS AFFECTED
Officials estimate tens of thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed, with satellite analysis cited by aid groups putting the figure at nearly 59,000 structures.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration has said up to 6.8 million people could be affected by the disaster.
More than 780 aftershocks have been recorded since the initial quakes, though their frequency has been declining. Roughly 13,000 families were reported homeless in the disaster’s immediate aftermath, and hospitals and morgues in the hardest-hit areas have struggled to cope with the volume of casualties; the morgue in La Guaira has at times processed around 400 bodies a day, according to local reports.
The disaster has compounded Venezuela’s existing economic and political crises, with aid officials warning of risks including disease outbreaks and further strain on an already weakened healthcare system.
