La Guaira, Venezuela\u2014 The confirmed death toll from two powerful earthquakes that hit Venezuela on Wednesday night rose sharply on Friday, climbing to at least 920 dead, along with more than 3,300 injured. The latest figures were announced by Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, the president of the country’s National Assembly.<\/p>\n
Rescue teams were racing to find more survivors amid more than 200 aftershocks, including a4.7-magnitude quakeoff the coast that was felt in Caracas Friday evening.<\/p>\n
Neighbors helped each other dig through rubble to search for loved ones in cities and towns across northern Venezuela in the wake of thepowerful back-to-back quakes. Venezuela’s health minister told state media late Thursday that thousands of people had been reported missing.<\/p>\n
The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck Wednesday evening were among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century and were felt throughout the region.<\/p>\n
The injured were pulled out covered in dust and blood, among them children and animals. Venezuelan state TV showed dramatic images of rescues, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab with only a bare foot poking out before rescuers slid her out alive. But few government search teams were initially seen outside Caracas.<\/p>\n
The coastal region of La Guaira, north of the capital Caracas, suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties. The country’s main airport is there and was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.<\/p>\n
Many were stunned Thursday morning as they saw buildings reduced to skeletons, furniture hanging out of windows and helicopters circling overhead. Buildings were flattened and streets cracked open.<\/p>\n
Families posted missing-person flyers with photos of loved ones while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched. Venezuelans abroad struggled to make contact with relatives due to interrupted phone service in the country.<\/p>\n
In downtown Caracas, hundreds spent the night huddled in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.<\/p>\n
Mother of three Dayana Delgado asked where the heavy machinery was that government officials had promised and said residents were the ones digging through crumpled buildings.<\/p>\n
“I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said of her missing 8-year-old son.<\/p>\n
One mother sobbed and collapsed in grief as the bodies of her 3- and 10-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away. Others screamed the names of the missing. Some stood in silent shock.<\/p>\n
Source: CBS News<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La Guaira, Venezuela\u2014 The confirmed death toll from two powerful earthquakes that hit Venezuela on Wednesday night rose sharply on Friday, climbing to at least 920 dead, along with more than 3,300 injured. The latest figures were announced by Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, the president of the country’s National Assembly. Rescue teams were racing to find more […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/god-bless-usa.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}