{"id":321351,"date":"2026-06-27T00:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321351\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T00:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:16:23","slug":"swfl-venezuelans-organize-relief-after-deadly-earthquake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321351\/","title":{"rendered":"SWFL Venezuelans organize relief after deadly earthquake | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BABCOCK RANCH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 As rescue crews continue searching for survivors following devastating earthquakes in Venezuela<\/a>, members of Southwest Florida\u2019s Venezuelan community are turning their focus to helping loved ones thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n

Officials say over 180 people have died and nearly 1,000 others have been injured after two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela Wednesday evening. Search and rescue efforts remain underway as crews continue digging through collapsed buildings.<\/p>\n

For Babcock Ranch resident Kat Higdon, the tragedy is deeply personal.<\/p>\n

Most of her family lives in Caracas. While she says they are safe, some of their homes suffered damage, forcing relatives to spend the night sleeping outside as aftershocks continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all gathered together, helping each other and trying to protect each other,\u201d Higdon said. \u201cThey were waiting for another aftershock, and it happened at two o\u2019clock in the morning. It wasn\u2019t as strong as they were expecting, thank God, but at least they were all together trying to help each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higdon shared photos with WINK News showing her family sleeping in the streets alongside neighbors, afraid to return to damaged buildings.<\/p>\n

She says many communities are also struggling without electricity, water and reliable communications, making it difficult for families to check on loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s devastating,\u201d Higdon said. \u201cI feel frustrated. Like many of my community here in Southwest Florida, we\u2019re all trying to gather together and figure out how we can help.\u201d<\/p>\n

That effort is already underway. Rohel Tovar, founder of Casa Venezuela Southwest Florida<\/a>, says the nonprofit is working with more than 180 Venezuelan organizations across the United States to coordinate humanitarian relief.<\/p>\n

The organization plans to establish donation drop-off locations in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples once logistics are finalized. Tovar says one of the greatest immediate needs is basic medical supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven something as simple as a bottle of Tylenol, ibuprofen or diclofenac makes a huge difference for families who are suffering and don\u2019t have access to basic medicine,\u201d Tovar said.<\/p>\n

While organizers continue working on transportation and distribution plans, Higdon is urging people to be patient and only donate through trusted organizations. She warns that scams often appear following major disasters and says people should verify where their donations are going before contributing money or supplies.<\/p>\n

Casa Venezuela Southwest Florida says it expects to share donation locations and a list of needed supplies through its social media pages once collection sites are ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not alone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are with you, we are praying with you, and we\u2019re going to stand with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global Empowerment Mission has opened operations with logistics ready to deploy donations for those affected.<\/p>\n

The organization is accepting donations at its facility located at 1850 NW 84th Avenue, Unit 100, in Doral. Global Empowerment Mission<\/a> is operating from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Many community members have been posting about different addresses where they are personally collecting donations. However, Global Empowerment Mission is the official organization currently equipped with the logistics infrastructure to properly deploy collected donations.<\/p>\n

Those interested in donating or learning more can contact the organization at (800) 995-7604 or visit globalempowermentmission.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BABCOCK RANCH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 As rescue crews continue searching for survivors following devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,54222,133218,48959,28,897,5387,1521,4571,4390],"class_list":["post-321351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-caracas","tag-casa-venezuela-southwest-florida","tag-earthquake","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-naples","tag-southwest-florida","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}