On the streets and in hospitals, Venezuelans scramble to save lives after quake

LA GUAIRA/MORON, Venezuela, June 25 - Nearly 24 hours after devastating twin earthquakes in Venezuela, people in the coastal city of La Guaira were still using their hands to dig through rubble, trying to rescue their neighbors.

"We are trying to help with what we can, but there is a lack of equipment," said Carlos Borges, who said he was frustrated by the shortage of machinery like backhoes to move the piles of concrete slabs that were once high-rise apartment buildings.

His team pulled three people from one building, as other anxious family members, including the single mother of a missing teenage boy, waited at the site on Thursday morning.

U.S. Geological Survey models suggested deaths could exceed 10,000 after two powerful earthquakes wreaked havoc in and around the capital Caracas on Wednesday. The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez has confirmed nearly 200 dead and 1,520 injured.

Residents of La Guaira, a popular spot for beachgoers and the worst-hit city in the country, and Moron, near the quakes' epicenter, were scrambling amid limited official help.

“Is it not possible to call in the military? Everyone come, come and pitch in. Put them in an armored vehicle and come help the people. Find tractors wherever you can,” said Argenis Martinez, a resident of La Guaira's Los Corales neighborhood, who was looking for a relative among the rubble.

Some rubble caught fire overnight, despite a cut to domestic gas service. Terrified residents, many with nowhere else to go, huddled in the streets or peered into destroyed buildings, looking for survivors.

The government, which said 250 buildings had been damaged or destroyed, mainly in La Guaira, has said aid is on the way from Spain, the United States, Mexico and Qatar and called on the private sector to lend equipment like backhoes to help with rescue efforts.

At other places in La Guaira, neighbors pulled two dead people from a house, including a little girl, and saved a mother and two children, injured but alive, from a destroyed apartment building.

Reuters witnesses saw members of a colectivo — ruling party-allied motorcycle groups who have long been accused of abusing protesters at anti-government rallies — assisting rescue efforts at at least one location.

“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.

LOOTING AT STORES

In some areas of La Guaira, people were looking for food and water, and a Reuters team witnessed looting at at least two stores.

The city's Jose Maria Vargas Hospital was overflowing with injured, and some patients were being tended to outside, where police were limiting access to the building. Officials there said they had no information for journalists.

"It's a tragedy," said Beatriz Rodriguez, 60, whose nephew's legs were amputated at the hospital after being crushed in the quakes. Another nephew, age 6, was killed.

The armed forces are deploying field hospitals to La Guaira, its command said in a press release, and will be able to perform emergency surgeries. A Reuters team in the city on Thursday saw a military convoy near the local stadium carrying out aid efforts.

Hospitals elsewhere were also struggling.

As he worked through a 24-hour emergency shift at the modest hospital in Moron, Dr. Augusto Ramirez found himself short of basic supplies.

“We need blood pressure monitors, gauze, thermometers, gloves, plaster, painkillers — everything,” Ramirez told Reuters.

He, two fellow doctors and other staff had treated 112 people since the quakes collapsed houses and cut off electricity and water in the town. Nine have died from skull fractures and other injuries, including three children. REUTERS