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'We're not stopping'_ Virginia rescue team searches for quake survivors in Venezuela · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The search and rescue efforts in Venezuela continued today, one
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: week after a double earthquake struck that country, but and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: fewer survivors are being found. A Venezuelan lawmaker today said
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  Speaker 1: nearly twenty three hundred people are now confirmed dead, tens
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of thousands remain missing, and medical professionals say the biggest
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  Speaker 1: danger now is treating survivors wounds and infections. I'm joined
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  Speaker 1: now by Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Battalion Chief
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  Speaker 1: Daniel Gayevsky. His team has seventy nine people and six
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  Speaker 1: dogs in Venezuela. Chief Kayevski. Welcome to the News Hour.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: So give us a sense of what it's like on
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  Speaker 1: the ground. I understand you and your team are in
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  Speaker 1: La Gueta, which one of the hardest hit areas. What
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  Speaker 1: is it like there and what's your focus? Is this
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  Speaker 1: still search and rescue or more recovery.
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  Speaker 2: At this point, So we're still in the search and
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  Speaker 2: rescue phase. We do not determine whether or not we
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  Speaker 2: go into the recovery phase. That's going to be the
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  Speaker 2: local government. So currently we have many reconteamed out in
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  Speaker 2: the area. We're looking for survivors all the time, both
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  Speaker 2: day and night. We work twenty four hour kIPS. We're
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  Speaker 2: always out there looking at When we identify where survivor
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  Speaker 2: is located, we stay there and then we start working
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  Speaker 2: that file until they come out. At this point, currently
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  Speaker 2: at USA one has removed five live victims and we're
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  Speaker 2: not stopping there. So currently we have four rescue teams
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  Speaker 2: out identifying and triaging different buildings in the area that
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  Speaker 2: have collapsed, that have potentially viable faces.
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  Speaker 1: And I know yours isn't the only team on the
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  Speaker 1: ground from outside doing this kind of work. How many
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  Speaker 1: strong are you and where else are you seeing? The
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  Speaker 1: other teams coming in.
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  Speaker 2: From needs are coming from all over the world. I
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  Speaker 2: believe we have over twenty seven countries that are represented
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  Speaker 2: in this response in over fifty three international teams. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, you head out into some of these printed
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  Speaker 2: areas and you see teams from all over helping out
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  Speaker 2: and trying to provide their service, their level of expertise
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  Speaker 2: to the local government's and the local first responders.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the folks you've been able to save,
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  Speaker 1: and we have seen these incredible moments of rescues people
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  Speaker 1: being pulled from the rubble, even days after the earthquakes.
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  Speaker 1: Does any one particular moment like that stand out to you?
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  Speaker 2: It does. I've been on this team since twenty eleven,
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  Speaker 2: and this is what we do for me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and then my prodition as a cashports leader, I kind
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  Speaker 2: of sit in the background. But seeing you know, the
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  Speaker 2: mother and child being pulled out on our first day
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  Speaker 2: here was it was extremely emotional, not only for you know,
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  Speaker 2: the guys and girls that are there and doing it,
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  Speaker 2: but for everybody back here.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned the many years you've been doing this. I'm
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  Speaker 1: assuming you've been parts of similar missions before. I'm actually
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  Speaker 1: personally thinking back to the scale of the disaster after
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  Speaker 1: the twenty ten Haiti earthquake, which I was on the
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  Speaker 1: ground covering, and what that took. Can you compare what
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  Speaker 1: you're seeing now in terms of the scale of the
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  Speaker 1: destruction and the devastation to pass missions? I mean, how
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  Speaker 1: bad is it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? It's pretty bad. I mean we just you know,
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  Speaker 2: the most recent mission I could compare this to would
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  Speaker 2: be Turkey. You know, we arrived in country there and
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  Speaker 2: then got boots on the ground. It's just total devastation
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  Speaker 2: and I'm very similar here. I think is a little
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  Speaker 2: bit larger scale, but still very similar. You know, here
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  Speaker 2: we have a lot of buildings that have collapsed, large
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  Speaker 2: and multi story buildings that have pancake collapsed, but we
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  Speaker 2: have large void spaces. With large void spaces comes a
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  Speaker 2: lot of opportunity for rescues. It's very similar to turkeys.
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  Speaker 1: Can I just put to you some of the frustration
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  Speaker 1: we have heard from folks on the ground now, who
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  Speaker 1: are obviously devastating having lost everything, But there are folks
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  Speaker 1: saying heavy machinery in particular is needed in some areas.
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  Speaker 1: Just take a listen to one man told us about
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  Speaker 1: what they haven't seen in their area days after the earthquake.
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  Speaker 3: We are waiting for the States heavy machinery, and we
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  Speaker 3: haven't actually seen it here at Los cocoas Beech, we
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  Speaker 3: haven't seen the heavy machinery, the machines that can lift
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  Speaker 3: tongues and move the slabs as easily as a feather.
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  Speaker 3: We're waiting for that as soon as possible, because every
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  Speaker 3: minute counts for those people who are down under the
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  Speaker 3: rubble waiting to be freed.
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  Speaker 1: From it, so chief for people who haven't yet seen
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  Speaker 1: the resources what's your message to them? Is there enough
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  Speaker 1: or is it coming?
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  Speaker 2: That's always in any large disaster, that's always one of
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  Speaker 2: the big needs. We're not surprised by what we're seeing.
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  Speaker 2: So case in point, we see these heavy pieces of
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  Speaker 2: concrete and things that generally we wish we could move
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  Speaker 2: with heavy machinery. We know that, Okay, if we don't
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  Speaker 2: have it, we're going to have to go through it.
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  Speaker 2: And we're well versed in that we've had all the
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  Speaker 2: correct tools that we need to do it, and we
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  Speaker 2: can do it fast and effectively, and that's what makes
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  Speaker 2: our team so special.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of estimates too, that the numbers
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing in terms of official death count could rise
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  Speaker 1: significantly based on what you've seen. Do you agree we
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  Speaker 1: could see that.
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  Speaker 2: Based on what we've seen, yet, I believe that's the
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  Speaker 2: bombsability that.
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  Speaker 1: Is Battalion Chief Daniel Gayevski joining us tonight from Aquada, Venezuela.
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  Speaker 1: Chief Ievski, thank you so much for your time.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you. Support journalism you trust, support PBS News.
• 5:07
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