Venezuelans slept in squares, avenues and cars after the powerful earthquakes
La Guaira is the state most affected by the earthquakes, since dozens of collapsed buildings were reported in that region
Venezuelans slept early this Thursday on mattresses and mats lying on the asphalt or sheltered inside their vehicles in the streets, amid fear of the aftershocks of the two large earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 that occurred on Thursday in the country.
The uncertainty regarding the damage assessment keeps the population on alert and, in fact, many of those who had decided to return to their homes, despite the damage to facades, returned to the streets in the face of some minor aftershocks.
Meanwhile, rescue personnel continue searching for survivors in collapsed buildings in areas to the west of the Venezuelan capital, such as El Paraíso, San Bernardino and Maripérez, and to the east, such as Los Palos Grandes, one of the most seismic communities in the city, and where extensive structural damage has been observed.
The machinery has begun to reach the affected areas, after several hours of rescue with shovels, wheelbarrows and the human body itself.
“We did everything with our lungs,” Maikel Rincón told EFE, after rescuing a 17-year-old boy in Maripérez.
“A neighbor ran by saying that the block had fallen and when we came it was already fallen and the neighbors got in and when we started to hear the screams there were people down below, we started to remove the rubble and that was when we took out Fabián, a little boy who is about 17 years old and (…) unfortunately his entire family died covered there,” he indicated.
Rincón also said that they took an injured person away in ambulances.
The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, pointed out that La Guaira, a coastal state in the north of the country and neighboring Caracas, is the state most affected by the earthquakes, warning that there are "dozens" of collapsed buildings.
The United States National Tsunami Warning Center explained that both tremors formed a “seismic doublet,” a phenomenon in which two large-magnitude earthquakes occur a few seconds apart in the same area.
The Tsunami Warning System canceled, hours after it was issued, the alert for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after the earthquake registered near the coast of Venezuela.