A father and his son were pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela, on Sunday, four days after a devastating earthquake struck the region. The rescue, carried out by French and US search teams, offered a glimmer of hope as emergency workers race against time to find more survivors.
Rescue Operation Details
The pair, visibly weakened and wearing masks, were carried on improvised fabric stretchers through debris-strewn streets to a waiting ambulance. A crowd gathered around the emergency vehicles as the rescue unfolded. The operation followed 12 hours of painstaking efforts by teams using specialized search cameras to carefully work through unstable rubble.
“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which is moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security team involved in the rescue.
Earthquake Impact
The coastal state of La Guaira was hardest hit by the earthquakes on Wednesday, which left at least 1,450 dead and thousands missing. The rescue of the father and son came after a mother and her 9-month-old baby were rescued the previous day by the same teams, which include members of the French Civil Security and American responders from the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team in Virginia.
Before extracting the family members, rescuers prepared intravenous drips and cleared debris. Others remained beside the rubble searching for signs of life and communicating with their colleagues among the ruins.
Ongoing Search Efforts
At least 33 people were rescued over the weekend, though tens of thousands remain missing, heightening fears that time is running out to find survivors. According to specialists, after 72 hours following an earthquake, the odds of finding victims alive beneath the rubble drop dramatically.
