The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated this Wednesday could leave a potential balance of between 10,000 and 100,000 deathsaccording to the preliminary evaluation of its PAGER system, which also anticipates significant economic losses.
The US organization activated an orange alert due to the human and economic impact of the earthquake, a category that reflects a significant risk of casualties and material damage, although this is an estimate based on automatic models and not an official balance.
There are expected to be thousands of victims
According to the USGS, the projection is built from the intensity of the ground movement, the exposed population and the vulnerability of the buildings in the affected area. The system assigns probabilities to different ranges of victims, with 10,000 to 100,000 deaths being the scenario with the highest probability within the model.
The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, declared a state of emergency after the two earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 and 7.2 that occurred in an area in the center of the country that caused material damage that has not yet been quantified and for which no number of injuries or deaths has been reported for now.
“We are currently declaring a state of emergency, as contemplated by our Constitution”said Rodríguez in a speech broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), accompanied by the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, and the Minister of the Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello.
Likewise, he said that the country’s entire public and private health network has been activated, especially in the most affected areas to care for the injured, without specifying a figure.
Tsunami warning canceled
The United States National Tsunami Warning Center explained that both tremors formed a “seismic doublet”, a phenomenon in which two large earthquakes occur within a few seconds of each other in the same areaso the official information was updated to identify the 7.5 magnitude earthquake as the main event.
In addition, the Tsunami Warning System Americans after the earthquake recorded near the coast of Venezuela.
