AFP journalists witnessed hundreds of rescuers in Venezuela enthusiastically welcoming a 43-year-old man named Hernan Gil, who had been pulled alive from the rubble eight days after twin earthquakes. The official death toll has reached nearly 2,300 with numerous missing people, making this rescue event celebrated as a miracle.
Gil’s wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, expressed her astonishment at the international response: ‘It’s the first time I’ve seen so many countries come together to save one person.’ Rescue teams from seven nations, including Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico, worked tirelessly over three days. Complex operations were conducted with caution, avoiding further collapse of damaged structures.
Cristian Vera, leader of the Chilean rescue team, described their challenging task: ‘It wasn’t easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located.’ Despite some remarkable rescues, hope for finding survivors has dwindled. In La Guaira city, most collapsed buildings are marked with the letter ‘D’ indicating no signs of life were found.
According to Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez, the death toll has risen to 2,295 and over 11,000 people have been injured. Almost 13,000 people are homeless while tens of thousands remain unaccounted for.
Source: Original report
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