{"id":520183,"date":"2026-06-26T21:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520183\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:31:11","slug":"venezuela-earthquakes-death-toll-passes-900-as-rescue-teams-try-to-save-survivors-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520183\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela earthquakes death toll passes 900 as rescue teams try to save survivors \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The toll from the back-to-back earthquakes that devastated Venezuela<\/a> this week has climbed to at least 920 dead and 3,360 injured, authorities said on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

The new figures were announced by Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the country\u2019s National Assembly.<\/p>\n

The number of dead and injured is likely to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue. Many families say their loved ones are still buried under the rubble.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person saved is a miracle,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Desperate families across northern Venezuela searched in the ruins of buildings for family members and whatever remained of their lives.<\/p>\n

Nazareth Jimenez sobbed into the shoulder of a loved one as she watched neighbours try to cut through slabs of concrete with hammers and power tools in a building reduced to a mountain of debris. \u201cMy God, how are we going to get them out of there?\u201d she murmured.<\/p>\n

She was in the northern state of La Guaira, just north of the capital Caracas, where some of the worst destruction unfolded. Jimenez was wracked with anxiety as she waited to see if her siblings, nephews, nieces and friends would emerge from the debris alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making a call for help to governments of countries across the world,\u201d she said, pleading for machines capable of moving collapsed structures. \u201cThere are still people alive in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CranesCranes remove debris from a collapsed building. Photograph: Pedro Mattey\/AP <\/p>\n

Government forces distributed food and water to survivors in La Guaira as acting president Delcy Rodriguez said authorities were mounting a full response. She welcomed the arrival of rescuers and humanitarian aid from all over the world. She said La Guaira had been militarised and more help was on the way, even as residents said it was just a fraction of the aid they needed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Far from home, it\u2019s that moment of anguish\u2019: Venezuelans in Ireland search for familyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The number of dead was expected to climb, with thousands of people reported missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to rescue the people who are trapped,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are working tirelessly on this task.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Organisation for Migration said up to 6.76 million people in Venezuela could be affected by the earthquakes, some two million of them in Caracas alone. Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross regional director for the Americas, said \u201cpeople are still terrified to re-enter what were their homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Buildings across northern Venezuela were reduced to skeletons, with furniture hanging out of windows and helicopters circling overhead.<\/p>\n

Firefighters from the state of Tachira, which borders Colombia, were among those being deployed for the search and rescue efforts in La Guaira.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of a religious organisation distribute food to people affected two days after an earthquake struck La Guaira. Photograph: Ariana Cubillos\/AP <\/p>\n

Firefighting general Antonio Briceno said 45 firefighters and a trained dog, aptly named Rescue, expected to reach affected sites in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are bringing shovels, picks, hydraulic tools, drinking water, which are needed at the site,\u201d Briceno said.<\/p>\n

Some 1,000 emergency responders in 25 search-and-rescue teams from across the world were on their way to Venezuela, said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN<\/a> Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.<\/p>\n

The assistance included help from Germany, Chile, Switzerland, Turkey, China, Qatar, Brazil, Portugal and Canada, as well as teams from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.<\/p>\n

Media reports have shared notable moments of hope, including a young man brought out on a stretcher in the San Bernardino district of Caracas to the applause of onlookers as his tearful mother said: \u201cLeandro, I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuelan TV broadcast video of a girl covered in dust and wrapped in a sweatshirt as she emerged from rubble with the help of rescuers. Caracas metropolitan rescue team head Jos\u00e9 Luis Nunez said she was found in a 10-storey building in La Guaira that collapsed and flattened \u201clike a pancake\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to highlight this girl\u2019s strength, determination and will to live,\u201d Nunez said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Venezuela earthquake: \u2018The mood was relaxed … then everything started to shake\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The toll from the back-to-back earthquakes that devastated Venezuela this week has climbed to at least 920 dead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,23242,92549],"class_list":["post-520183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-nations-un","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}