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Venezuela has updated the number of those who died in last month’s twin earthquakes to 3,535, with nearly 18,000 people still left homeless and the government catching more and more heat for how it’s handled the whole thing.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: The two quakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, hit roughly 40 seconds apart on the evening of June 24, striking in and around the capital Caracas and the coastal region of La Guaira, the hardest-hit area. The disaster landed on a country already reeling, with years of political and economic crisis leaving roughly 8 million people relying on humanitarian aid long before the ground even shook. The scale of the destruction is staggering, though the numbers are contested, with authorities citing a few hundred to a few thousand damaged or collapsed buildings. NASA’s satellite imagery points to something far worse (around 59,000 buildings damaged/destroyed).
What’s going on now: One of Venezuela’s top lawmakers, Jorge Rodriguez, said Monday the official death toll had climbed to 3,535, with another 16,740 hurt and 17,854 displaced. Roughly 13,000 of them have crammed into 80 shelters scattered across Caracas and La Guaira, while tens of thousands more are still reported missing, though authorities have not released an official count.
Health officials are now warning of a second wave of danger in the crowded shelters. Dr. Mauricio Cerpa Calderon of the Pan American Health Organization pointed to packed rooms, bad airflow and patchy access to clean water as conditions that could fuel the spread of disease. Cases are already climbing among displaced residents sleeping in packed sites or out in the open.
All of this is fueling intense anger directed at the Venezuelan government, with fed-up residents ripping the official response as too slow. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has defended the handling of the disaster, saying security forces deployed immediately and announcing a new military unit to manage future emergencies.
International aid is also ramping up, with the UN, the Red Cross and others pushing in rescue crews, medical staff, body bags and refrigerated containers, while the Spanish Red Cross is seeking to build a field hospital.
This all comes as experts warn the death toll could climb dramatically, with the US Geological Survey figuring the final count will most likely settle somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 (a range aid workers say comes down to whether Venezuela can actually keep its injured survivors alive).
