By Vivian Sequera and Mayela Armas
LA GUAIRA/CARACAS, June 26 (Reuters) – Foreign rescue teams and aid were arriving on Friday in Venezuela nearly two days after devastating twin earthquakes flattened areas in and around the capital Caracas, forcing residents to dig through rubble to save relatives, friends and neighbors.
The government has estimated hundreds of people still trapped and missing on top of 589 confirmed fatalities and 2,980 injuries. A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had 50,000 listed as of Friday morning.
The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas on Wednesday evening as Venezuelans were enjoying a public holiday.
The U.S. Geological Survey has predicted high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the last century.
The government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after the United States arrested her predecessor in a January raid, has pledged a massive deployment of assistance.
Yet help was patchy on Thursday, with authorities like firefighters, police civil protection and the military on the streets in some places but absent or with minimal presence in others.
La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas, was the worst affected, as at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments, smashed to the ground.
Anguished residents, many of whom combed through debris with their hands or whatever tools they could find, decried a lack of state help and proper equipment, though state television showed images of Rodriguez making an afternoon visit and pledging aid.
“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” said Yamileth Jimenez of her 19-year-old son, who was stuck in debris of their seven-story apartment building.
Beyond those combing through the rubble, Venezuelans have also stepped up to provide ad-hoc aid to earthquake victims, with motorcycle caravans of supplies reaching La Guaira on Thursday evening from Caracas.
Dozens also travelled by motorcycle through the night from the city of Valencia, carrying food and supplies.
WORLD RALLIES
Foreign rescue teams – including some from countries which have opposed Venezuela during decades of international isolation, political repression and economic deterioration – began arriving late on Thursday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira.
Several countries including India and Switzerland sent in rescue teams and supplies. Mexico has sent 250 rescuers, El Salvador 188 and Spain nearly 100, and a Colombian air force plane carrying 63 rescue crew was on its way on Friday morning.
The U.S. has said it is mobilizing $150 million in aid, and eased long-time sanctions on the socialist country to allow earthquake aid.
The U.S. military said it has dispatched two ships and will use helicopters and aircraft for search and rescue efforts.
The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has sought to portray herself as an agent of political change even though she served as vice president to the ousted Nicolas Maduro.
On Friday morning, she said La Guaira state will be “militarized” to facilitate rescue work, and 2,600 tons of food had been distributed there.
“I want to thank the motorcyclists who have spontaneously offered their means of transport to bring water to the town that needs, and to deliver food,” Rodriguez said in remarks broadcast on state television, referring to the citizens providing aid deliveries.
NATION UNDER STRAIN
The quake hit a nation already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil that has impoverished residents, triggered a migratory exodus of millions, and eroded basic infrastructure and services.
“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.
Nearly 7 million people could be affected, said the U.N.’s migration body, which was supplying emergency shelter and other relief supplies.
“We lost everything,” said Pedro Perez, 64, an upholstery workshop owner who said he had lost both his home and business and was sleeping on the street on Thursday night with his wife and children. “We hope help arrives quickly.”
Near the epicenter in Moron, a seaside town in Carabobo state, houses crumpled and residents had no water or electricity. Families salvaged what they could, including mattresses, televisions and washing machines.
In the OPEC member’s vital oil sector, foreign energy companies said their operations had not suffered major disruption and oil infrastructure appeared largely spared.
The Caracas Stock Exchange remained closed, turned into an aid collection centre.
Until now, the deadliest quake in Venezuela’s modern history had been in 1967, killing 240 people.
(Reporting by Vivian Sequera in La Guaira and Mayela Armas in Caracas, Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Moron, Reuters TV in La Guaira, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez in Barcelona and Reuters bureaux around the world; Writing by David Latona, Andrew Cawthorne and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Jon Boyle and Deepa Babington)
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