Venezuela’s huge needs are not being met by earthquake response, group warns

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — The response to Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes last week has not met the huge need created by the disaster, according to a leading international humanitarian organization.

The International Rescue Committee, also known as the IRC, said the chances of survival for the tens of thousands still missing were shrinking dramatically two days after the critical 72-hour survival window. After that period, survival chances drop sharply.

“The scale of the response does not meet the scale of humanitarian need,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez says at least 1,943 people have died and thousands have been injured. About 16,000 people were left homeless.

A website promoted by the country’s political opposition puts the number of people missing at around 43,000.

At a makeshift morgue in devastated La Guaira, at what is usually the state’s major port, Andrea Montilla sat in a plastic chair awaiting family members who were inside formally identifying the remains of her cousin and his grandmother.

The 14-year-old cousin was found in the rubble of an apartment building overnight, Montilla said.

“It’s been so painful, a very long wait,” she said, adding her cousin’s mother is still missing.

Empty coffins were stacked throughout the port and bodies were laid out along a stretch of concrete in body bags.

An official at the site, who was not authorized to speak to the press, told Reuters they were from La Guaira and had lost multiple family members in the quakes, adding they did not have an estimate of the number of bodies already handed over to families or the number awaiting identification.

Jordanian emergency workers did rescue a child early on Tuesday, the only reported survivor on the sixth day of rescue efforts, according to Venezuelan authorities.

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