Rescue teams walking through a building that collapsed during the earthquakes in Venezuela.Credit…Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
The United States and Mexico were among the latest to send support as the death toll from two powerful earthquakes climbed to 235. Thousands were injured, and hundreds remained missing or trapped under rubble.
Here’s the latest.
More international rescue teams were arriving in Venezuela early Friday to join the urgent effort to retrieve survivors and bodies from the rubble after two powerful earthquakes left at least 235 people dead, thousands injured and several hundred trapped or missing.
Rescue personnel from Mexico were the latest to arrive, President Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela said in a social media post before dawn on Friday. Hours earlier, a Marine Corps major general arrived in Caracas to direct the U.S. military’s relief efforts, according to United States Southern Command.
India is also sending aid. The country’s external affairs minister wrote on social media that two military transport aircraft were heading to Venezuela with a field hospital and over 35 tons of relief supplies, medicines and medical equipment.
The steady arrival of international aid and rescue missions, while welcome, does not address a major challenge: the lack of heavy machinery. During Venezuela’s prolonged economic crisis, state-owned bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machines have rusted away without spare parts or maintenance. They are now sorely needed.
American specialist teams are heading to Venezuela to help with search, rescue and recovery efforts.
One of them, from Fairfax County, Va., posted photos early Friday of its members boarding a large U.S. military cargo aircraft at night. The contingent is leaving with dozens of people and six dogs. The team includes specialists in structural engineering, heavy rigging and collapse rescue, according to its website.
Another group, a 71-member urban search and rescue contingent from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, left on Thursday evening with 6 canine teams and 84,000 pounds of equipment, the department said on social media.
