In the wreckage of Catia la Mar, a city ravaged by last week’s earthquake, the search for survivors has become a desperate, hand-by-hand ordeal. At least 1,700 people are known to have been killed in the disaster, yet hope — however faint — persists that others may still be found alive among the piles of concrete and twisted metal.
Across the shattered neighbourhoods, neighbours and family members have taken the work of rescue into their own hands. With no heavy machinery available, they claw at the rubble using their bare hands and whatever tools they can scavenge. The BBC’s Will Grant, reporting from the scene, described the effort of locals who refuse to abandon the search, even as days pass since the earth shook.
“At least 1,700 dead in Venezuela earthquake as neighbours dig with bare hands for survivors in Catia la Mar.”
The epicentre of the tragedy is a collapsed building in La Guaira, but the search continues across Catia la Mar. Each removed brick carries a prayer; each scrap of sound from beneath the debris brings a rush of adrenalin. The authorities have not called off the mission, and rescuers — both official and volunteer — keep working, rotating in shifts, hoping for a miracle.
“We can’t stop,” one local told Grant, his hands bloodied from digging. “There are people under there. They are our family, our neighbours. We have to find them.”
The death toll, already staggering, is expected to rise further. But for now, the focus remains on the living. The search goes on, driven by a simple, stubborn conviction: that someone, somewhere in the wreckage, is still waiting to be pulled out alive.