Ammon News - Desperate Venezuelans and rescue teams raced to find survivors on Friday as the death toll from twin earthquakes rose above 900 with foreign crews and aid only beginning to reach devastated areas nearly two days after the quakes.

The government said 172 people remained trapped, 920 were dead and 3,360 injured after the quakes devastated parts of Caracas and surrounding areas on Wednesday evening. More than 50,000 people were reported missing.

The ground shook once again Friday afternoon, a weaker 4.9 temblor that was felt in the capital Caracas and nearby Maracay.

Frustration mounted over the uneven pace of relief in some of the hardest-hit areas including La Guaira state, where residents and volunteers were still digging through rubble by hand amid shortages of heavy equipment and limited official presence.

Jennifer Palacios, 25, said her 6-year-old son and five other relatives remained buried in La Guaira city’s eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex.

“It’s the community that has managed to get people out alive,” she said. “We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped.”

The disaster could have political consequences for interim President Delcy 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.

A U.N. report estimated direct damage from the two quakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, at about $6.7 billion. The second quake was Venezuela’s most powerful in more than a century.


CNBC