Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, reported that buildings collapsed after earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 shook the country.
this Wednesday (24). Experts estimate “a high number of casualties and extensive damage.” Images showed emergency teams climbing through the rubble of a collapsed building in the capital.
“There are likely to be high casualties and extensive damage, and the disaster is likely to be widespread,” the USGS said, with an initial estimate of deaths likely ranging between 10,000 and 100,000.
Authorities did not immediately release estimates of deaths or injuries. “Some buildings collapsed (in Caracas), houses collapsed,” Cabello said on state television.
Many Venezuelans were at home when the earthquakes struck, celebrating a national holiday marking an 1821 military victory that secured Venezuela’s independence from Spain.
“As soon as it started, we heard people screaming,” said Astrid Ramirez, a 41-year-old publicist who lives in the west of Caracas. “Everyone was running up the stairs.”
Venezuela is situated in a seismically active tectonic region where the Caribbean Plate collides with the South American Plate.
Residents of the capital — which was also rocked by a deadly 6.3-magnitude earthquake in 1967 — rushed to leave swaying buildings.
“There was a very loud bang. Things fell inside the house, jars inside the refrigerator. I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said Coro Martinez, 56, a resident of the east side of Caracas.
Maria Romero, an 80-year-old retiree who lives in the south of Caracas, said police helped her leave. “This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” she added.
Fire trucks could be seen on the streets of the capital, and the facades of some buildings suffered significant damage. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami threat warning for Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands following the quake, adding that islands off the coast of Venezuela — Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire — could also be hit by dangerous waves. The alert was canceled within about an hour.
