Race to find survivors of Venezuela earthquake as satellite images show thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed

Caracas — The race to find survivors continued Tuesday six days after the powerful twin An earthquake devastated northern Venezuela. A NASA assessment based on satellite imagery suggests that as many as 60,000 buildings may be damaged or destroyed, and teams from around the world have joined the fray. efforts to find anyone trapped alive under the debris.

The confirmed death toll from the 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes, which struck less than a minute after 6pm on June 24, rose to more than 1,700 on Tuesday.

With thousands of people still missing, rescuers said time is running out to reach anyone who survived the quake.

Search efforts in the province of La Guaira, which occupies Venezuela’s northern Caribbean coast, continued to advance, and an American team from Fairfax, Virginia was among those working near the carnage of the disaster on Monday.

CBS News joined the team as they searched under the collapsed building, calling out inside and outside the building for anyone who heard screams to knock three times as a signal.

There was no response.

“My daughter is here,” said Miguel Coello when he asked American rescuer Josh Morrison to help him find his 22-year-old daughter.

“Fourteen people inside – probably not alive, all of them. But at the end of the story, we need to revive our bodies, you know,” said the father.

Morrison said his group was responding to such requests for help as much as possible, but acknowledged that, more than five days after the tragedy, “it gets more difficult the longer it goes on.”

He said they treat each rescue attempt as if it were the first, “and we will continue to work until we no longer find signs of life.”

Rubmar Carolina Garcia sifted through the rubble of one building for her son Adrian’s belongings. He lost his 13-year-old child and his mother in the earthquake. They were found attached to each other.

“He was a good guy,” he told CBS News.

As night fell on Monday, teams tried to rescue the guard who had been trapped for five days.

“There is a clock, and it will eventually come to a point where rescue efforts will have to be stopped, but that is beyond us, and we will work until then,” Morrison stressed.

According to its analysis of satellite images taken before and after the earthquake, NASA said that “about 58,870 buildings were possibly damaged or destroyed throughout the affected area” in Venezuela.

The space agency insisted that it was “the first product produced within days of the event,” which was not confirmed by post-disaster testing.