LA GUARIA, Venezuela – Amid the collapsed buildings that now shape the city’s skyline, rescue teams and families are working tirelessly to search for missing loved ones after two devastating earthquakes struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday.
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Distressed relatives searching for loved ones know that time is not on their side as they hope their loved ones can be found safe.
For some people, good news starts with a whisper – or a baby’s cry.
On Thursday, a father stood in front of a collapsed apartment building here, screaming his adult son’s name over and over again, searching for signs that he was still alive, a day after a powerful earthquake.
The father, José Alberto Gallipoli, went into the ruined basement of the building to see if he could hear his son answering his calls.
“The scene was devastating,” Gallipoli said. “I screamed the name of my son Joffram with the last shred of faith I had left.”
But then he heard a faint whisper. It was Joffram, still alive, with his wife and his 4-year-old son.
The family had spent more than 24 hours trapped under the debris of their seven-story apartment building.
Gallipoli was about 20 miles away in Caracas when magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, less than a minute apart, shook Venezuela. They were among the most powerful to attack Venezuela in more than a century.
As soon as the ground stopped shaking, Gallipoli left for La Guaira in search of his son, daughter-in-law, and 4-year-old grandson. To avoid the problem of roads being blocked by debris, he walked on foot.
Gallipoli said that when he analyzed the destruction where his family was buried, he felt helplessness, frustration and anger “knowing that they are alive there, time is running out.”
“Eventually, he will run out of oxygen,” Gallipoli told NBC News in Spanish via WhatsApp. “There’s no food, they don’t have electricity or water.”
Rescue workers at the scene worked for hours to get Gallipoli’s family to safety.
“They asked to talk to them and asked them to knock on specific locations so they could determine how to get to where they were,” Gallipoli said. He said the family seemed together and safe.
The rescue operation was uncertain. Rescuers lacked suitable equipment but had “enough will, enough interest and desire to do it”, Gallipoli said.
Video obtained by NBC News captured the moment Gallipoli’s son, daughter-in-law and grandson emerged from the debris through a path that rescuers had cleared overnight.
The boy came out first and told rescuers, “I feel fine.” His parents also followed him and hugged everyone present there, expressing gratitude for saving him.
The level of devastation in La Guaira state, just north of the capital, is one of the worst in Venezuela.
Thousands of earthquake survivors crowded into open spaces, some even setting up camping tents because they could not go back inside their destroyed homes.
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said the area had been demilitarized as additional humanitarian aid was delivered to the affected people. On Friday afternoon, officials reported 920 deaths and more than 3,000 injuries. more than 70,000 Reported missing by a Venezuelan volunteer site.
cry of a child
Dayana Patiño and her newborn son, just 18 days old, were buried under the debris of another eight-story apartment building in La Guaira.
They were covered with so much debris that Patino could not move. She held her child tightly in her arms for hours, unable to breastfeed him.
It wasn’t until Thursday morning that volunteers in the area heard her voice and the baby’s cries coming from the collapsed building, said Merly Adrena Quintero, one of the volunteers.
quintero Noticias told Telemundo They had been searching for Patino and her child for about 12 hours. “He was already presumed dead,” she said in Spanish.
With guidance from first responders, volunteers began clearing debris to make way for the mother and her baby, Quintero said.
First of all, the child was taken out from the debris and handed over to his father. Quintero said both mother and son were taken to a clinic in Caracas because health centers in La Guaira were overcrowded.
Rescue workers were not able to reach Patinos till 1 am on Friday.
“She fought to keep her child safe,” Quintero said. “It was a miracle because neither the mother nor the baby suffered any fractures.”
Ana Vanessa Herrero reported from La Guerra; Nicole Acevedo and Geraldine Coles Azocar reported from New York.
