Venezuela quakes kill almost 1,500, with millions more in need
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The death toll in Venezuela’s twin earthquake disaster reached 1,430 on Saturday, with millions more feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs as the first US aid flights trickled into Caracas. Facing public outrage at the response by local officials, US-backed interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez said the country was “not alone”. The United States said one runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport was now functioning and that C-17 US military planes were landing there, while a naval ship had arrived off the coast. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said search-and-rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilised to help find survivors. But the search for survivors saw desperate attempts by local residents to claw away rubble from apartment buildings that collapsed in Wednesday’s double-quakes. Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters are the key, narrow window for finding the living. There was joy in the hardest-hit coastal area of La Guaira, north of Caracas, when locals pulled an infant alive out of the wreckage on Friday, some 32 hours after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors. Earlier today, the Venezuelan government said that 1,600 members of foreign rescue teams had arrived to help search for survivors of the devastating twin earthquakes. Residents and volunteers in La Guaira, a popular destination for beachgoers where at least 100 buildings, many residential high-rises, were destroyed or damaged, have for days decried shortages of heavy equipment and a limited official presence. Rodriguez said in an overnight address on state television that 10 more countries were still to join rescue efforts and 14,000 military and police members were in La Guaira to patrol and take sanitary measures. “In recent hours, Venezuela has received 17 flights carrying more than 1,600 members of rescue teams, and over the next 24 hours, the arrival of 25 additional flights is expected,” said foreign ministry official Oliver Blanco. “We thank the