Dozens of people were killed and hundreds of others were injured as a pair of powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said in a televised address.
The two quakes a 7.2 magnitude one followed just seconds later by a 7.5 struck the coast of Venezuela, knocking down buildings in Caracas, the capital, and sending residents racing into the street.
Emergency responders were undertaking “intensive rescue operations” early on Thursday, searching for people thought to be under the rubble, Rodriguez said.
US sending search and rescue teams, Rubio says Secretary of State Rubio said he spoke with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriquez, and he said the U.S. is sending search and rescue teams.
“We’re maybe already deploying search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. There’ll be some others we’ll add,” Rubio said.
“That’s their most immediate need right now, is search and rescue efforts. They have a bunch of collapsed buildings, and so they’ll need a lot of help in terms of digging through that,” he said.
“The airport there is badly damaged, so we’ll have to rely on the Department of War to deploy assets there, and then we’re also helping them with some overhead imagery, especially in coastal areas where they don’t have full visibility over what the damage has been and what the impact has been,” Rubio said.
He said the administration would have “a better assessment” of Venezuela’s longer-term needs “when we’re on the ground.”
Rubio declined to put a dollar amount on the aid the U.S. would commit to Venezuela, saying it was too soon.
He said Qatar, El Salvador, Chile and other countries have also offered to help.
