The Venezuelan metropolis is fighting for time in the search for survivors after two strong earthquakes. Authorities warn of critical hours and longer school outages.
The Speaker of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, warned that time is running out to rescue survivors from the rubble of last week’s earthquakes. Interim President Delcy Rodrígue has announced that schools will remain closed this week, TASR reports, according to Sky News.
Two consecutive earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela overnight Thursday, killing at least 1,450 people, according to figures from Sunday.
The number of missing persons is decreasing
According to the website with the list of missing persons, 46,628 people are still missing. Details of the last known location of a missing person can be published on this page. The number of missing persons has dropped from more than 50,000 in the past few hours. So far, 15,097 people who were declared missing have been found.
“We are in critical hours, decisive hours, when it is necessary to continue saving human lives and to build camps where people who have lost their homes or cannot return to their homes for any reason can stay,” Rodríguez said.
Damaged infrastructure
He added that 3,150 people were injured and 12,721 families in Venezuela were affected by these earthquakes.
As a result of the earthquakes, schools remain closed in the country for another week. The interim president added that so far it has been possible to restore electricity supplies to 75 percent of the state of La Guaira, which was hit the hardest by the earthquakes. Water supplies have been restored to 68 percent of the state, and road access has been restored to 90 percent.
Risk of aftershocks
The US Geological Survey (USGS) says there is a 48 percent chance of one or more aftershocks with a magnitude greater than five during the week.
