Caracas (EFE).- Venezuelan Parliament President Jorge Rodríguez reported on Wednesday that the death toll from the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela rose to 2,295, while the number of injured increased to 11,267.
«As of today, 2,295 people are dead, and 11,267 are injured. We are currently accounting for 12,841 affected individuals,» Rodríguez said in an update broadcast by the state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
He also explained that over 4,000 rescue workers have rescued 6,461 people. «Hope remains intact,» he said.
Rodríguez noted that 782 aftershocks have been recorded since the double earthquake, though he clarified that their frequency and intensity have decreased over the past two days.
“The threat appears to be diminishing, but it has not disappeared,” he stated.
The government has set up 25 «temporary» camps for those affected: 13 in La Guaira (the hardest-hit area), eight in Caracas, two in Miranda, one in Carabobo, and one in Yaracuy.
Rodríguez called on those affected to register with the government’s online system, Patria, through which social assistance is provided. He said this would help resolve the issue of «livability» quickly and allow them to move to «hotels in the capital city so they have a place to stay overnight.»
The double earthquake that struck a week ago was the deadliest that Venezuela has experienced in the last century. In Jul. 1967, an earthquake near Caracas killed 245 people, injured thousands more, and caused extensive property damage.
Seven days ago, the earthquakes affected Caracas and six other states in northern Venezuela. La Guaira, a coastal region that suffered a tragedy in 1999 when a landslide left thousands dead, was the hardest-hit area.
A preliminary rapid assessment conducted by NASA using satellite imagery indicated that the double earthquakes in Venezuela may have damaged or destroyed some 58,870 buildings throughout the affected region. EFE
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