Tensions flared Saturday as desperation grew in Venezuela's state of La Guaira as rescuers and civilians searched for earthquake survivors and the death toll rose sharply to 1,430. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Omar Guariato was celebrating his granddaughter's 5th birthday at home when the earthquakes began. As he sat in a camp for displaced people in the hard-hit La Guaira, he recalled the moment the house next door collapsed.
Desperation set in on Saturday among Venezuelans trying to locate their loved ones alive among piles of rubble, where public housing buildings and ocean view towers stood until twin powerful earthquakes brought them down midweek. People in the community of Caraballeda went so far as to block an excavator from leaving the site of a collapse and to pull the operator from its cabin shortly after state workers took selfies in front of flattened buildings and left without having helped at all.
Footage showed panic in the streets of Caracas as back-to-back earthquakes struck the Venezuelan capital. A rare double earthquake ravaged Venezuela on Wednesday, killing at least 920 and injuring another 3,360, authorities said. Many more are feared dead.
Pope reiterates support for quake-hit Venezuela, prays for victims.
U.S. firefighters from the Fairfax County search and rescue team pulled a boy and his father from the rubble.
Rescue efforts continue.