Strongest Quake in a Century Devastates Venezuela
Two powerful earthquakes 39 seconds apart toppled buildings in Caracas and the port of La Guaira, as the US Geological Survey warns the death toll could climb into the tens of thousands.
- Two powerful quakes, magnitudes 7.5 and 7.2, struck northern Venezuela on June 24, just 39 seconds apart.
- By June 26, about 235 people were confirmed dead, more than 4,300 injured, and thousands remain missing.
- The US Geological Survey estimates roughly 48 percent odds the toll passes 10,000 and about 11 percent that it passes 100,000.
- Search and rescue teams from the United States and Mexico are arriving in Caracas and the port of La Guaira.
For a region that still remembers the earthquake that flattened Skopje in 1963 and the tremor that shook Kraljevo in 2010, the images of cracked facades in Caracas feel painfully familiar. Yet the scale of the disaster that struck northern Venezuela on June 24 dwarfs anything the Balkans has seen in half a century. From Belgrade, where sympathy for victims of natural disasters tends to rise almost by reflex, observers are watching with dread a figure that officials in Caracas still dare not state in full.
The first quake, magnitude 7.2 with an epicentre near the city of San Felipe, hit in the early evening. Just 39 seconds later came a second, stronger shock of magnitude 7.5, centred near the town of Yumare. That second earthquake is the most powerful to strike Venezuela in more than a century, and its wave collapsed buildings in the capital, Caracas, and in the port city of La Guaira, only a few dozen kilometres from the country’s centre.
Thirty-nine seconds that levelled a capital
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency and announced that the Caracas airport had been closed due to heavy damage. Early assessments put the number of damaged or collapsed buildings at around 250, and a United Nations humanitarian agency reported that more than 100 structures fell in La Guaira alone. By June 26, about 235 people had been confirmed dead and more than 4,300 injured, while thousands remain unaccounted for and more than 200 people are believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.
Geophysicists tracking the aftermath repeat a familiar but brutal truth: it is not the earthquake that kills, but poorly built structures. Many families were caught mid-celebration of a national holiday when the shock hit, which, according to Venezuelan authorities, raised the toll. The US Geological Survey, whose loss-estimation system is regarded as the most reliable in the world, puts the odds of the final death toll exceeding 10,000 at roughly 48 percent, and the odds of it passing 100,000 at about 11 percent. Those are figures rarely seen on its automated disaster maps.
What comes next for those trapped under the rubble?
The priority in the first days is rescuing people pinned under concrete, since the window for finding survivors is measured in hours, not weeks. Two of the most accomplished American urban search and rescue teams, from Fairfax County in Virginia and Los Angeles County, are already en route to Venezuela. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has announced that the Secretariat of National Defense is dispatching rescuers and medical personnel, opening a broader front of international aid to a country that has spent years in political isolation.
Diplomatic signals are also coming from Washington, where help is being promised to “new friends,” a sign of how a disaster on this scale can rearrange even the most frozen relationships. For now, though, everything depends on heavy machinery, generators, and trained rescue crews reaching the sites before the most critical 72 hours run out.
The Balkans know well what it means when the ground opens without warning, and how slowly such wounds heal. Just how willing the world truly is to help a country long pushed to the margins of international attention will become clear in the days ahead. Do you believe international solidarity will outweigh politics this time?
