Venezuela finds itself plunged into chaos and desperation after the country suffered two strong earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale in the early hours of this Thursday (Canary Islands time) and at 6:04 PM local time. Vladimir Villalba, one of the Venezuelans of Lanzarote origin living in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, has told La Voz how he experienced the earthquakes and what the situation is like in the country.
Despite the city of Valencia having suffered damage to many of its buildings and homes, Villalba assures that "there is no major infrastructure that has collapsed, but there are small buildings that have suffered significant damage on the outskirts of Valencia, in Puerto Cabello, Morón, and Tucacas."
Vladimir Villalba's home and his family's home have suffered some material damage, although not serious. "In our workplace, our offices, there were cracks and broken windows, but nothing compared to the massive damage that has occurred in Caracas where there are indeed entire buildings collapsed," he says.
He also pointed out that the situation in the state of La Guaira "the situation is truly tragic and there is a lot of destruction." "We are truly facing a tragedy of greater magnitude in Venezuela," he emphasizes.
The Venezuelan government declared a State of Emergency throughout the territory, where the United States Geological Survey stated there is a 42% probability that there could be between 10,000 and 100,000 deaths from the two earthquakes. For now, the death toll stands at 164 dead and 1,000 injured.
Anguish over an "interminable" earthquake
The intensity of the earthquakes caused enormous anguish and fear among Venezuelans, as seen in various images. "The moment of the earthquake was extremely distressing due to its duration, it seemed like it would never end," he says. "On other occasions, we have had seismic movements in Valencia or Caracas, they happen from time to time, but they have been short, and this one, as it was two consecutive earthquakes, was absolutely interminable and caused great anguish," he continues.
The earthquakes, with an interval of 39 seconds between them, have been the most intense since the San Narciso earthquake of 1900, when it is estimated to have had an intensity of between 7.6 and 8.0 on the Richter scale. These tremors have severely affected the central part of Venezuela, especially Caracas, La Guaira, Valencia, Maracay, and the state of Falcón.
This anguish, declares the Venezuelan, could be seen in the people who ran out of their buildings to go down to the street. Even though the tremors stopped, the anguish continued when trying to contact relatives by phone and not getting answers. "The connections collapsed for several hours and, in my case, my two children study in Caracas and it was an extremely distressing moment not being able to communicate with them, but fortunately it didn't take long until we could speak with them and they are fine," he pointed out.
From the first moment, the country has deployed to attend to the injured and rescue the survivors who are still under the rubble. In addition, several countries such as Spain or Switzerland have announced the sending of aid. "The guilds and chambers of commerce are organizing to be collection and channeling centers for aid through private institutions such as Cáritas and, in general, a very traditional network of solidarity of the Venezuelan idiosyncrasy has been activated," he concludes.