A strong aftershock sent terrified Venezuelans racing into the streets on Monday, five days after twin earthquakes killed at least 1,719 people and left tens of thousands missing. The US Geological Survey measured the tremor at a magnitude of 4.6, while Colombia’s geological survey put it at 5.1.
The aftershock shook the capital, Caracas, and the devastated port city of La Guaira, where rescue crews are still hoping to pull survivors from the rubble. Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of the Venezuelan national assembly, said there were no immediate reports of new damage, but the trembling earth and sounding of quake sirens brought fresh panic.
“A 4.6 magnitude aftershock sent terrified Venezuelans fleeing into the streets as death toll from twin quakes reaches 1,719.”
“I was asleep when the shaking woke me up. It felt almost as strong as Wednesday’s earthquake, even though I hadn’t felt the other aftershocks,” said Amarelis Mendoza, a resident of El Hatillo in Caracas.
In the hardest-hit areas of the capital – Altamira and San Bernardino – people poured into the streets from makeshift shelters. Many have been sleeping outside apartment buildings or in tents pitched along sidewalks, fearing further collapses. Several lines of the Caracas metro were shut down again over concerns that additional aftershocks could damage already weakened infrastructure.
In San Bernardino, search operations at the 22-unit Rita apartment building, which collapsed completely during last week’s earthquake, were suspended for about an hour and a half following Monday’s tremor.
As the new week began, some businesses across the capital started to reopen, but the number of people seeking refuge in parks and public squares continues to grow. Hundreds of displaced families from Caracas and beyond have been camping out in Parque del Este, a 200-acre park in the east of the capital.
“Life is worth more than anything else,” said Katiuska Asuaje, 35, who fled her home in the La Cruz sector of Bello Campo with four children. “We weren’t going to wait for the house to collapse on top of us because one of the concrete roof slabs had already come loose.”
In the city of Catia la Mer, neighbours and family members have been searching for loved ones with their bare hands and any tools they can access. The BBC’s Will Grant reported from the scene on the effort of locals to find any survivors.
Maryuri Pérez, 36, and Jaime Blanco, 40, had nowhere to go back to after their shack in west Caracas collapsed. “What we need most is a tent or at least a mattress to sleep on,” Pérez said, underscoring the growing humanitarian emergency.