As Venezuela death toll rises, survivor recounts days beneath the rubble

LA GUAIRA, VENEZUELA: Juan Zapata had just eaten dinner in his fifth-floor apartment overlooking the Caribbean and was about to take a shower when he was thrown ​across the room by the force of the twin earthquakes that ripped across Venezuela’s coast 10 days ago.

He spent two days and seven hours trapped in the rubble, wedged ‌between two pieces of rebar, before civilian rescuers pulled him out.

“When they were rescuing me I said, ‘I’m on the fifth floor’ and they told me, ‘no, you’re in the lower basement.’ I couldn’t believe what had happened to me,” Zapata said, as he stood next to his cot in a field hospital in La Guaira state run by disaster relief group Samaritan’s Purse.

Zapata was initially treated at the public hospital in La Guaira, the site hardest hit by the quakes, ​and came to the field hospital after visiting his building, Costa Brava, and finding it destroyed.

He is recovering from several fractured ribs, as well as serious cuts and scrapes. His lower ​legs are bandaged and it still hurts to breathe.

“All my material things were lost, but God has given me health,” he said.

Zapata has not been ⁠able to contact his daughter in the United States or his sister in Canada, as he lost his phone in the quake. He also has no identification card or other documents.

On Saturday the ​government raised the official death toll to 2,954 and said nearly 30,000 officials have been deployed alongside 3,281 international rescue workers to help people affected by the quakes.

More than 16,000 people are homeless, according to ​official figures. Some are living in official shelters and others in tent encampments. An unofficial but widely used tally of the missing stands at just over 41,000.

Death toll from Venezuela quakes rises to 1,450

The field hospital, part of the U.S. State Department’s coordination with several groups providing aid in Venezuela, has treated some 400 patients so far, said its medical director Peter Holz, including surgeries that are set to number nearly 30 by Saturday evening.

“In the beginning it’s all trauma from the earthquake, then we ​will have follow-up surgical visits,” Holz said, as he stood inside the hospital’s pharmacy, erected over what is normally a baseball field.

Gradually the Samaritan’s Purse 100-person team will hand over operations to local ​doctors, either continuing to operate at the field site, or integrating all their equipment and supplies into local clinics where they will remain for good, he said.

“It will develop more into a community health center,” Holz added. “There’s a ‌lot of ⁠sad stories but also a lot of hope in the midst of all of it.”

Civilian commitment

Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has vehemently rejected allegations that her government reacted too slowly to the quakes after days of widespread criticism of the official response.

On Saturday the government raised the official death toll to 2,954 and said nearly 30,000 officials have been deployed alongside 3,281 international rescue workers to help people affected by the quakes.

More than 16,000 people are homeless, according to official figures. Some are living in official shelters and others in tent encampments. An unofficial but widely used tally of the missing stands at just over ​41,000.

Civilians of all stripes — including survivors, family members, ​volunteer paramedics and foreign rescue teams — have descended on ⁠disaster areas since the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes struck on June 24.

Many of those digging through the rubble, along with international aid organizations, say the government’s response was slow and ineffectual, with aid like food and medical supplies delayed and a continuing lack of heavy machinery to move debris amid search operations.

At ​a devastated public housing complex in La Guaira, known colloquially as Los Cocos, a team of civilians managed by Alexander Delgado, who is usually ​a physical education teacher, were ⁠still trying to pull victims out on Saturday, nine days since Delgado arrived from the state of Aragua.

Miguel Poleo joined the crew to search for his stepdaughter and her family. So far he has only located their dog, dead in the rubble.

“I don’t think they’re alive anymore,” he said, as he rested from pulling debris out of a tunnel.

“The president said that help arrived quickly but it wasn’t like that,” Poleo said. “We’ve gotten ⁠help from ​regular people.”

Though groups of soldiers are helping with rescue work, official presence is still lacking, he said.

“The police are walking ​around with their guns, their semi-automatics, as if we are in a war,” Poleo said. “What we need them to do is work.”

Venezuela quake death toll nears 1,500 as rescue work goes on

Poleo and Delgado both said they would stay until all the victims are found.

Poleo, who worked as a mechanic before the ​quake, wants to give his wife the chance to bury her daughter and grandchildren.

“We need to find the bodies.”