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On the ground in Venezuela after deadly earthquakes · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: On Wednesday night, Venezuela suffered its worst earthquakes since the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: year nineteen hundred. At least nine hundred and twenty people
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: are known to have died, but some estimates fear the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: final death toll could be closer to ten thousand. Two
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: back to back quakes hit the country less than one
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  Speaker 1: minute apart. I go a little means so what happens now,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: what will it mean for the country's future, and why
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  Speaker 1: is Venezuela particularly vulnerable to such an event. Our correspondent
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Will Grant reports from Venezuela.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: The search and rescue effort has basically begun from the
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  Speaker 2: moment these earthquakes struck. From the very start, teams we're
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  Speaker 2: out trying to pull people from the rubble, and unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: he's turned it into a task of also pulling bodies
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  Speaker 2: from the collapsed buildings. In the main part that work
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  Speaker 2: is concentrated in these neighborhoods of al Damira and Los
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  Speaker 2: Palos Brandez here in Karrakas, but the main scene is
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  Speaker 2: down on the coast, a place called Laguida, where as
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  Speaker 2: many as a hundred buildings have collapsed. People have been
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  Speaker 2: working through the night, every single night trying to find
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  Speaker 2: missing loved ones. It is a very very harrowing task
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  Speaker 2: and we do not know at this stage how many
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  Speaker 2: of those expected fifty thousand missing people will become part
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  Speaker 2: of the final death till and we don't know indeed
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  Speaker 2: when we'll get her final figure for the number of dead.
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  Speaker 3: I used to live here in Kadakas.
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  Speaker 2: On this very corner in fact, and my colleague Vanessa
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  Speaker 2: Silva still does. She's Venezuelan and was in her home
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  Speaker 2: when the earthquake struck.
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  Speaker 4: We as our journalists are struggling with the moments in
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  Speaker 4: this country. Even our team was hit, I mean our
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  Speaker 4: camera hand run. Samora doing this video just starts crying
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  Speaker 4: because he lost a friend in the in the Vargas state,
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  Speaker 4: and you have a moment to sit and realize what
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  Speaker 4: is going on is when all your emotions came. It's
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  Speaker 4: not being easy. It's not being easy for us as
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  Speaker 4: a Journalist's not being easy for us as any soul
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  Speaker 4: and society, because we have struggling with a country that
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  Speaker 4: faces many complications along this year, and especially now when
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  Speaker 4: we thought that the economy will improve, now that people
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  Speaker 4: went wanting to come back, the relative wanted to come
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  Speaker 4: to this the invest again.
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  Speaker 3: In the country.
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  Speaker 4: Now these are quite occur and now people is again losing,
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  Speaker 4: losing friends, losing families, losing opportunities or recuperation.
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  Speaker 2: Cruise been coming in from around the world, particularly those
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: places that have great expertise in search and rescue. That
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  Speaker 2: includes Mexico, of course, who have famed the world over
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  Speaker 2: for it. The Brazilians were on the plane when we
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: flew in earlier.
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  Speaker 3: Today.
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  Speaker 2: There have been teams sent from the UK, from the
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  Speaker 2: United States, there have been medical teams sent from Cuba,
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  Speaker 2: and aid from a whole range of nations and partners,
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  Speaker 2: including Spain. The United States has promised relief effort of
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million dollars, and that's just to
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  Speaker 2: begin with. With the Trump administration promising more prolonged and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: sustained support to the government of Venezuela, which it now
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  Speaker 2: considers an ally. The wider impact of this moment could
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  Speaker 2: go on for years. There are many many homes in
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  Speaker 2: this nation that are going to be completely uninhabitable and
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  Speaker 2: will need to be pulled down. That's just to talk
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  Speaker 2: about the accommodation side of things.
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  Speaker 3: Which is huge.
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  Speaker 2: The course, the loss of life is the first thing,
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  Speaker 2: the collective pain on Venezuelans of losing so many people. Again,
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  Speaker 2: we don't know how many people that will be yet,
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  Speaker 2: but it looks like it will be a very high number.
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  Speaker 2: That's so many, potentially thousands of families who've lost a
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  Speaker 2: loved one or more that, so many people who know
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  Speaker 2: a family who've been affected. Tho's people who've lost their businesses,
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  Speaker 2: their livelihoods, and their homes. The picture, when taken together,
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  Speaker 2: is very, very bleak at this moment. This moment hasn't
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  Speaker 2: happened in a vacuum. It's happened in a year where
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  Speaker 2: the tensions between the United States and Venezuela reached their
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  Speaker 2: nader in January of this year, when the United States
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  Speaker 2: launched air strikes on this city, when they removed the
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  Speaker 2: sitting president in his pajamas, Nicholas madel Or, at gunpoint.
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  Speaker 2: At that point, it feels like there has been an improvement,
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  Speaker 2: a constant improvement in relations with his replacement, that's the
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  Speaker 2: interim president, Delci Rodriguez. It is strange to see that
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  Speaker 2: relationship bloom and blossom, considering that this government, the Bolibarian Revolution,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: that she has been such a key part of for
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  Speaker 2: so many years is predicated on opposition to Washington, and
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  Speaker 2: here it is essentially doing Washington's bidding in this moment
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  Speaker 2: around this earthquake, it was very striking that Interim President
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  Speaker 2: Rodriguez singled out the United States first as the nation.
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  Speaker 3: Coming to its aid. Very good.
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  Speaker 2: The numbers speak for themselves, fifty thousand missing people, the
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  Speaker 2: fact that there has been an event this powerful since
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  Speaker 2: nineteen hundred. There have been already hundreds of deaths, thousands
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  Speaker 2: of injuries, and many people remain in a life threatening situation.
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  Speaker 2: This is a very, very difficult period for Venezuela. It's
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  Speaker 2: hard to know when there could be any sort of
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  Speaker 2: rebuild when it's right in this moment, when the concentration
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  Speaker 2: now is on still missing loved ones, still finding survives.
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  Speaker 2: But with each hour that passes, the hopes begin to dwindle.
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  Speaker 2: But why is Venezuela particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.
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  Speaker 5: This is because it lies close to the boundary of
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  Speaker 5: two tectonic plates. The upper section of the Earth is
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  Speaker 5: split into different sections. These are the plates. In this
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  Speaker 5: part of the world. We have the Caribbean plate and
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  Speaker 5: a South American plate trying to slide past each other
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes parts of the plate gets stuck and energy builds up.
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  Speaker 5: When they eventually start moving again, huge amounts of energy
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  Speaker 5: get released. This makes Venezuela prone to earthquakes. In this case,
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  Speaker 5: we had two events of similar size less than a
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  Speaker 5: minute apart. This is called a DOUBLET sequence. Signs have
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  Speaker 5: said there were seven point two and seven point five
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  Speaker 5: in magnitude. The scale is logarithmic, which means each number
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  Speaker 5: is ten times bigger than a last, so this is
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  Speaker 5: very big. The earthquake in Mayama last year was seven
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  Speaker 5: point seven and that led to the death about to
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  Speaker 5: five thousand, three hundred people. But these events in Venezuela
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  Speaker 5: are also very shallow, less than thirteen miles below the surface.
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  Speaker 5: The closer to the ground the earthquake is more shaking
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  Speaker 5: we get and potential damage.
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  Speaker 3: What next is a very tricky question to answer.
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  Speaker 2: What we know is what's happening now, and that is
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  Speaker 2: a sustained effort by the government with support from its
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  Speaker 2: international partners, to try to reach the missing survivors. As
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  Speaker 2: things move forward, and as that situation gets bleaker and bleaker,
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  Speaker 2: this will move to a recovery operation to bring out
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  Speaker 2: the dead and from there there will have to be
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  Speaker 2: questions asked about bringing those homes up to building code
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  Speaker 2: that might be salvageable, and simply pulling down those that
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  Speaker 2: can't be