Global Rescue Mobilization Accelerates as Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Rises
The United Nations said Friday that international search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are racing to Venezuela to help locate survivors after a pair of devastating earthquakes struck the country on Wednesday.
Getting those teams to the hardest-hit areas is the “top priority,” according to the UN humanitarian office, OCHA.
“Earthquakes are one of the most devastating things that can happen to any country. It really is a terrifying thing,” spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva. “But what we are seeing right now is also an international mobilization at its very best. The entire humanitarian system is moving very fast, and at scale.”
Laerke said a total of 25 teams are being deployed — 17 national urban search and rescue teams and the rest emergency medical response units — involving about 1,000 rescue personnel. More are expected.
Teams from Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States have already arrived, he added. Additional teams from Britain, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar and Spain are also being mobilized.
The 7.5- and 7.2-magnitude quakes have killed at least 235 people so far, and officials expect that number to rise significantly as more debris is cleared.
The World Health Organization said the immediate needs include mass casualty management and trauma care, especially in areas where buildings collapsed. PAHO emergencies director Ciro Ugarte emphasized from Washington that “the overriding priority is to rescue as many people as possible while urgently providing life-saving health care to the injured.”
“The first 72 hours are critical to saving lives, and efforts are heavily focused on ensuring timely medical attention for those affected,” Ugarte said. “The number of deaths and injured people will significantly increase in the coming hours and days.”
Ugarte noted that the earthquakes hit a health system that was already fragile. More than 15 health ministries in the region have pledged support and are ready to deploy teams. PAHO experts are mapping affected health facilities and have identified over 90 hospitals exposed to shaking intensities above six or seven on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
“We are prioritizing those facilities, including assessment of structural safety, emergency department capacities, operating theaters, inpatient beds, blood supply, and oxygen,” Ugarte said. “Hospitals are managing injuries such as broken bones and head injuries, but also burns and other injuries resulting from building collapse.”
The international response is expected to expand in the coming days as rescue crews continue to search for survivors and medical needs grow.