Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Venezuelan president says she has faith rescuers will find survivors of earthquakes

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Venezuelan president says she has faith rescuers will find survivors of earthquakes · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Venezuelan authorities say more than nine hundred people are
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: now known to have died in Wednesday's two huge earthquakes,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and more than three thousand have been injured. Another strong
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: tremor was felt off in as well as northern coast
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on Friday afternoon. Rescue teams are in a race against
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: time to reach people trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: The United Nations says more than fifty thousand people are
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  Speaker 1: still unaccounted for. At least one thousand international search and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: rescue workers have been deployed, with teams from countries including
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the UK, US, Turkey, and Brazil. Hospitals in the port
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  Speaker 1: city of Laguara, the worst affected area, reportedly overwhelmed. Numerous
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: buildings in the city have been damaged or destroyed. Will
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Grant reports.
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  Speaker 2: For more than a minute, two separate earthquakes shook Venezuela
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  Speaker 2: to its core. For some survivors, that minute has now
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  Speaker 2: become the longest days of their lives. With their loved
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: ones still trapped beneath the rubble of flattened buildings, they're
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  Speaker 2: reduced to the desperation of waiting and hoping. There are
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a few stories as tough as Natasha's a resident of
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  Speaker 2: the badly affected coastal town of La Guaida. She says
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  Speaker 2: her two daughters, Leonella and Sasha, aged twenty two and
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  Speaker 2: twenty three, were working in a nearby shopping mall when
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  Speaker 2: it came down. They're still missing. I just want them
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  Speaker 2: to please reappear, she sobs. There is still hope. Among
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  Speaker 2: the incredible moments of survival, a toddler was plucked from
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  Speaker 2: the carnage of crumpled concrete and twisted metal, scarcely believable
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  Speaker 2: after so many hours in the dust and darkness. Elsewhere,
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  Speaker 2: a woman lost to her family has been brought out
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  Speaker 2: safely to Still, the urgency grows with every hour that passes.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Help has started to come in from around the world,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: from Mexico and the U to Cuba and Spain. The
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  Speaker 2: UK is among those which has sent rescue workers with
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  Speaker 2: sniffer dogs and aid others ascending medical teams. This is
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  Speaker 2: really quite a shocking scene. I lived on this very
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  Speaker 2: corner for several years. My building was just over here
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  Speaker 2: and as you can see, one of the ones opposite
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  Speaker 2: has been completely flattened. Then, what is one of the
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  Speaker 2: worst affective neighborhoods in Caracas. There are neighbors sitting out
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  Speaker 2: waiting for news as the earth moving equipment removed the rubble.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a scene that's been repeated across northern Venezuela.
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  Speaker 2: The trauma of this experience will be forever etched into
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  Speaker 2: Venezuelan's collective memory. For the party goers enjoying the national
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: holiday who suddenly found themselves with nowhere to run as
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  Speaker 2: the quakes rattled the streets, or the passengers waiting on
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  Speaker 2: the tarmac when their plane began to lurch back and forth.
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  Speaker 2: Each evening, thousands have little choice but to bed down
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  Speaker 2: in the parks, in the streets, or in the shelters.
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  Speaker 2: Hospitals are overwhelmed, and the government is struggling to cope.
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  Speaker 2: The country's most powerful earthquaking over a century has wrought
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  Speaker 2: some of the greatest devastation in Venezuela's modern history, too,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: will Grant. BBC News Caracas.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: The BBC's Vanessa Silva has been reporting from the capital
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  Speaker 1: Crackers since Wednesday's disaster. She's now traveled to La Guayra,
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  Speaker 1: where she sent this report.
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  Speaker 3: The extent of the damage throughout La Waida State is
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  Speaker 3: really impressive. Building collapses like this one is being seen alone.
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  Speaker 3: All the literal of these state that is between a
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  Speaker 3: mountain and the sea and the Caribbean Sea in the
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: state are at least the five hundred infrastructures collapses between buildings, schools, shops, malls,
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  Speaker 3: devastations is really impressive. Here we have to speak with
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  Speaker 3: relatives that were telling us that at the very beginning
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  Speaker 3: were only them looking for the locked ones. Now we
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  Speaker 3: can see, we can see around some volunteers that has
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: come from many regions of the country to help in
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  Speaker 3: the searching of the survivor to help removing the concrete
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  Speaker 3: or the rest of the buildings that collapse. This time,
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  Speaker 3: there is many people arriving to Lawuayra, so the transit
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  Speaker 3: is almost collapsed. Here is the stock because it's a
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  Speaker 3: narrow state, so and too many people are and too
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  Speaker 3: many people living at this moment. The state was militarized
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  Speaker 3: early in the morning, but now it's a bit of
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  Speaker 3: cows because there is too much people trying to come
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  Speaker 3: with supplies. The state has been militarized, but control all
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  Speaker 3: these situations that are facing now is really complicated. As
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  Speaker 3: the time goes by, it will be sad the numbers
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  Speaker 3: of victims that probably we will known.
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  Speaker 1: Of more ness. I've been speaking to Maria Gradual, freelance
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  Speaker 1: journalists and Caracus here.
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  Speaker 4: It's quite quite complicated because as you have seen and
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  Speaker 4: my Codds have explained a lot, it's really complicated because
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  Speaker 4: people don't have the tools they need to get those
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  Speaker 4: that are still under the building. So basically, when the
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: government doesn't answer, it's Venezuela and people that do it
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  Speaker 4: they do it because they're hoping to get the relative
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  Speaker 4: from the places they are trapped in. And that's the
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  Speaker 4: key point in here, that they are doing as much
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  Speaker 4: as possible with what they have, because we have to
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  Speaker 4: remember that this is a country that is facing a
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  Speaker 4: different and other crisis. I mean, we were living in
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  Speaker 4: a crisis before SAT A percent of the population was
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  Speaker 4: living in poverty and thirty two percent more in extreme
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  Speaker 4: poverty when these two earthquakes happened. So now what we
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  Speaker 4: are seeing is a response of civilians. They're organizing themselves,
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  Speaker 4: they're trying to help as much as possible and hearing
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  Speaker 4: geagas at least we can see people that are coming
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  Speaker 4: from from all the regions in the country to help,
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  Speaker 4: and we have to say that, for example, in hospitals,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: the medical supplies are brought by other people because you
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  Speaker 4: know that hospitals are facing a crisis. There's no water
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  Speaker 4: in most of them and they're almost collapsing to So
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  Speaker 4: the response is mostly endured by Benezuelan's not exactly by
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  Speaker 4: the government, because people are feeling and they have said
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  Speaker 4: that they have the sensation that they answer. The response
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: is not being as fast as they need it. They's
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: not being as fast as they need to save more people.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the numbers are just staggering, aren't they of
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  Speaker 1: the numbers missing in terms of the international help that's
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: come in. Several countries have been getting involved. But is
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  Speaker 1: there sort of concern that that hasn't been enough or
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  Speaker 1: quick enough.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Yes, the concern is that it's not enough. It's not
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  Speaker 4: enough because the reports, the official reports, they give some numbers,
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  Speaker 4: but for example, villions, they have three like a web
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  Speaker 4: beach in which they have reported more than ten thousand
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  Speaker 4: people missing, and that's a lot, and they are not
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  Speaker 4: Like as I said before, there's not like an official
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  Speaker 4: record that can tell us right now about the magnitude
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: of these events. Because when the government says something about it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: They always say like, we're not included numbers from Lawaia,
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  Speaker 4: which was the area of the disaster. So what the
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: numbers that we have. We perceived them that like they're
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: not complete and that they are not showing what the
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  Speaker 4: reality is in here in the country.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: What are these shelters like the people are staying and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: will go out saying that people are just sleeping out
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: on the street in parks and the like. I mean,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: there's so many people who don't have anywhere to stay
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: on or that you have to deal with.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: Well, for example, in Get, I guess the shelters are
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: basically parts that are open spaces, so people are just
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: in their waiting They sleep on mats or also just
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: on the floor. They put their blanket and spend days
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  Speaker 4: in there. Like well, we see a lot of kids
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  Speaker 4: in there too, And it is true that they are
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: receiving a lot of help life with food, water, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: that's not the only thing they need. They need a
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: proper accommodation because they don't know for how long they're
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: going to be living in that situation. And that's like
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: a lot of it's like a disaster. Because they're registering
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: people but there's not like a huge like a list,
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  Speaker 4: an organized list in which you can go and check
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  Speaker 4: if your family member is in there not. They're putting
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: people from the White Line a place, but some others,
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  Speaker 4: like people who lost the their buildings or apartments in Karrakas,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: they say like they're paying. They feel like they're paying,
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: like authorities are paying more attention to people from Aguaya
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  Speaker 4: and are not taking good care of them. So it's
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  Speaker 4: like a really complicated situation and it's really sad because
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  Speaker 4: it's like they're living in there. They're still like there's
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: not a place where they can go anymore, and they're
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: waiting to see if their buildings can be checked or evaluated,
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  Speaker 4: so to see like if they can come back, go
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  Speaker 4: back there or not.
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  Speaker 1: Maria Gratule from Caracas, a freelance journalist