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More than 1,700 people killed in Venezuelas earthquakes · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The scale of the destruction across Laguirra is numbing. Two
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: massive earthquakes a few seconds apart have left a bustling
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: coastal town in ruins. Any country in the world would
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: struggle to know where to start with responding to such
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a brutal disaster, but from all accounts, the Venezuelan government
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: has failed to do even the ben minimal by the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: side of a main road at this wreckage of a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: twelve story government owned building. Heavy machines are now involved
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in the operation, but for the first two days it
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: was just locals trying to do what a government should
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: have been doing. Even now, most of the people here
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: are not professionals, their volunteers or families searching for their
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: loved ones. A primo, Rafael Gomez, tells us he's here
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: looking for his cousin.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Digging through the concrete blocks is a painstaking process. You
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: can see that rescue efforts are going on here with
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: full intensity, with whatever equipment is available. That's because yesterday
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: they managed to pull out a few people from under
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: this rubble alive. About an hour ago they heard a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: dog barking and they were able to pull the dog
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: out just as we were walking here. They'd asked for
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: pindrop silence, so everybody kept quiet because they were trying
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to listen to see if they could hear human voices
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: from underneath. Now some people have told us that they
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: believed they could hear some voices, and that's why now
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: they've resumed this operation in full strength, hoping that they
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: might still find somebody alive. We saw this happen a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: few times. Every time they drilled through a layer of concrete,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the street was asked to go silent. Rescuers clambered down
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: into the gap looking for survivors, listening hard. After a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: few minutes, work resumed, and as they peeled away the debris,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the smell of dead bodies here became stronger. Huddled in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a corner are families of those who were in the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: building when it collapsed. Claudio Sidenio's wife Clara is under
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the rubble. Miguel Oscar Nuniers is comforted by a friend.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: His only child, thirty four year old son and hell
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: lived in the building.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I am here because my son is under their ubby.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Like my son, there are hundreds of others trapped here.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: We need more support from authorities because what's being done
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: just isn't enough. It's possible that the earthquake hasn't killed
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: my son, but negligence will of not getting help.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: In Tie further north, the devastation looms ominously. We were
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: driving down this road and we came across these two
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: tall buildings which completely collapsed. People who live here tell
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: us that they were sixteen stories high. They estimate that
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: hundreds of people would have died in there, but there
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: are no official numbers as of now. These are people
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: who live here by the way, you can see that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: they're repairing or trying to salvage, trying to clear the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: debris of their homes. And they've been telling us that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the earthquake occurred on Wednesday, but the first official rescue
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: teams only came here on Friday. They were firemen who
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: didn't have enough machinery to try to pull people out,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and so they've described how they were hearing screams and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: shouts from people who were trapped inside, and in one
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: case they actually clambered up and locals here were able
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to pull one woman out alive. You could see so
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: one AVN Danno showed me a video of how they
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: spotted a woman who was trapped under the rubble. In
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the video, you can see him handing her a bottle
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of water. Are you able to hold it? Speak to me,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: my dear, he says. She replies that she's got it
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and can open the bottle.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: The first few days there was no help from the government.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: The desperation was overwhelming because we could hear people screaming,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and there wasn't enough support, either equipment or rescuers. If
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: we've had both, maybe we could have saved more lives.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: On the mountain of rubble, we saw people digging with
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: basic tools and their bare hands. William Rodriguez was looking
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: for a loved warmer Columbio. I'm here because I want
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to find my uncle and I'm not alone. The stench
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: here is unbearable, but we can't sit idly as long
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: as as there is a possibility that there might be
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: survivors under the rubble, he told us. Nearby, we met
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Herrera, who's desperate for help to search for her
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: two daughters, teenagers, Gray Realise and Gray Valise. She says,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: they're quiet, studious girls.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Guila, they are all I have. I just want to
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: find them at any cost. There were no machines rescue set.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: It's like you've been left on your own to stretch
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: for your loved ones.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: But let me get.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Outside. The hospital's walls are slowly filling up with pictures
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: off the missing families. Neighbors, friends crowd around a list
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of those admitted in the hospital, hoping to find a
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: loved one. Yerinkibermudes has come here looking for his friends,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: anger at his government spilling out as he speaks.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: The police and government didn't help us. We pulled the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: bodies and survivors out ourselves, along with neighbors and volunteers.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: We dug through the rubble with our bare hands.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: In a single family, we find a story of survival
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: and of extreme loss. Twelve year old an Helparedes was
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: dug out from under the debris of his home after
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: more than thirty six hours, but his baby siblings and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: his father died. Your husband's name. His mother, Ruth, showed
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: us a photo of three year old Alexander with her
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: husband Dryma. He was free. My little son was alive.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: But the rescuers came too late, and they didn't have
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the machines that could have dug him out faster. He
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: died next to his father. She said, hello, Nora, I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: present they you'll be I'm very close to my Cami.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I love my younger siblings so much, said Anne. Hell hekay,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: when not Passey, allow them? Mothery You're who has now
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: been discharged but does not have a home to go
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: back to. Tens of thousands are in a similar situation,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and with more than five hundred aftershocks occurring since the earthquakes,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: even many of those whose homes are still standing are
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: too scared to sleep indoors. Trauma and anger are everywhere.