Extract from ABC News
People gathering on the streets of Caracas after the earthquake. (Reuters: Gaby Oraa)
As a rare one-two punch of earthquakes hit Venezuela this week, residents in the capital city of Caracas watched in horror as buildings shook and were sent "pancaking" before their eyes.
An initial 7.2-magnitude quake struck near the town of San Felipe on Wednesday just after 6pm, local time, and was followed a mere 39 seconds later by another, much stronger, 7.5-magnitude quake.
Roberto Quintero, a 17-year-old student in Caracas, had just walked into his mother's apartment block when one of the most powerful tectonic events to strike the country in the past century occurred.
The "doublet" triggered the collapse of a complex across the street, one of several buildings to give way in the capital as residents ducked for cover.
A ceiling collapses at a Venezuela airport as the earthquake strikes.
"[My mum] saw… [through] our window [which was] facing the other building that [it] was collapsing," he told the ABC.
He said she had been so frightened by what she had seen that she suffered a panic attack and was unable to leave her complex.
"Out of fear, she stayed locked inside," Mr Quintero said.
It was only after some neighbours began fleeing that his mother was able to make her way out of the building and to a nearby car park, where the pair decided to shelter.
Mr Quintero is still waiting for news on whether it is safe to return to his mother's complex and if anyone was hurt in the building collapse across the street.
Roberto Quintero says his mother watched a building collapse from her apartment complex. (ABC News)
"We're waiting to see what Civil Protection says to see if we can enter the building," he said.
Many other locals are in similar situations, with authorities reporting entire buildings crumbling during and after the quakes.
Almost two days after the quakes, the Venezuelan government said it feared hundreds of people remained trapped under rubble.
The death toll had risen to 920, national assembly president Jorge Rodríguez said, and more than 50,000 people had been listed online as missing.
Extensive search and rescue efforts are continuing, but predictive modelling from the United States Geological Survey indicates the death toll may dramatically rise in the coming days.
A collapsed building in La Guaira, a coastal city about 30 kilometres north of Caracas. (Reuters: Maxwell Briceno)
Videos shared online offer some early insights into why the earthquakes were so deadly, with CNN analysis finding that some residential towers failed in a "pancake mode" of structural collapse.
These types of collapses can be extremely dangerous, as they were in Türkiye in 2023 and in California in 1989.
And with the clock ticking in the search for survivors, residents fear an already fraught effort to clear the rubble will be further complicated by a lack of much-needed machinery.
Venezuela's lack of 'earthquake preparedness culture'
Venezuela sits on one of the most active tectonic boundaries in South America, where the Caribbean Plate slides up against the South American Plate.
It has a history of sudden movements, with the biggest in recent memory occurring along the Bocono fault system in 1812. Approximately 30,000 people were killed in the disaster.
When the first earthquakes struck on Wednesday, it triggered another along the same fault, in a rare event called a "doublet".
The result was that "twice as much energy" was released, said Adam Pascale, the chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre in Australia.
To give an Australian comparison, the Venezuela earthquakes would have been at least 20 to 30 times bigger and up to 250 times more powerful than the magnitude-5.9 earthquake that struck near Mansfield in Victoria five years ago.
"If you imagine the shaking that we experienced in Melbourne … going on for a minute or longer and being much stronger, it sort of starts to give you an idea of how terrifying it must have been for the people in Venezuela," Mr Pascale said.
Unlike other countries, including the United States, Mexico and Japan, Venezuela does not have an early earthquake warning system of sensors to detect the first waves of an earthquake.
That meant when the tremors first hit, many people were caught by surprise and did not have an explanation for what was happening.
One resident in Caracas told the ABC they only realised they were in danger when the lights went out.
"We don't have that earthquake preparedness culture," 31-year-old Giordy Ardila said.
"While [our electronic] devices were making noise, the power went out, and it started to shake softly."
Some residents have reported their phones and laptops blaring with Google's Android Earthquake Alerts system shortly before and after the quakes struck.
The system relies on crowdsourced data from sensors in individual mobile phones to detect seismic events and issue warnings to other users in the area.
"Suddenly, the magnitude of the earthquake began to increase. I told my girlfriend to leave the apartment and go to the parking lot," Mr Ardila recalled.
Giordy Ardila has supplied tools and equipment to the rubble clearing efforts. (ABC News)
Those who could evacuated swaying buildings in Caracas and were forced to stay outside until authorities could give the all-clear.
A CNN report analysed dozens of videos from the quake and found that some structures appeared to have suffered a "pancake collapse", a phenomenon which occurs when a building collapses in on itself from the top down.
Emergency services worked through the night after the earthquakes, which struck shortly after 6pm, local time. (Reuters: Gaby Oraa)
These collapses "tend to 'stack' floors on themselves, bringing all their weight down nearly square on the floor below," Gregg Favre, a former commanding officer with the St Louis Fire Department and experienced special rescue team member, told CNN in 2021.
"This continues down, accumulating more weight and stress as the structure falls," he said.
What emerges is something resembling a stack of pancakes.
Scientists noted in the aftermath of Türkiye's 2023 earthquake that many of the destroyed buildings there appeared to have been built from concrete without adequate seismic reinforcement, leading to "pancake collapse".
Investigations into the causes of Venezuela's many building collapses, and the extent of the damage are still ongoing, but some experts have noted that many of the country's buildings may not have been built to withstand such powerful earthquakes.
Informal housing and poorly constructed structures often standing on insecure ground are common in South America, putting the region at greater risk from natural disasters.
Locals using bare hands, borrowing tools to clear rubble
In the days since the quake, rescuers have focused on clearing rubble and debris, hoping to find survivors in the small pockets of destroyed buildings.
They have been joined by families with missing loved ones, who have flocked to the areas hardest hit in search of any updates about their condition.
A car smashed by a collapsed building after the earthquakes in Caracas. (AP: Adrian Naranjo)
Nubia Gómez, a 60-year-old mother from Maracaibo, the second-largest city in Venezuela, drove nine hours to the capital to help search for her daughter after failing to reach her.
"I texted my daughter to ask if she had felt the earthquake and if she was OK," she told the ABC.
"And she never answered me on her cell phone. Then I saw a video on Instagram of the collapsed building."
Ms Gómez said she did not feel the tremors at home when the quakes first struck, only learning of what had happened from friends.
Nubia Gómez is praying for her daughter who she fears is trapped in rubble. (ABC News)
She thought immediately of her daughter, who lived in Caracas, and got in her car to make the journey to the capital to help find her.
Ms Gómez is praying desperately for any news of her loved one, fearing she may still be trapped under rubble and unable to call for help.
Rescue teams are working hard to clear piles of concrete slabs from areas that were once high-rise apartment buildings.
However, locals have reported a shortage of available machinery, leading some to use their bare hands to dig through the rubble.
Mr Ardila owns a store that sells tools and hardware in Caracas, and said he and a few others have offered what they can to help with the effort.
"I brought a cordless rotary hammer because I thought they were going to have electrical problems," he said of the clearing efforts.
"[I also brought] a grinder and a sledgehammer."
He said another young man brought a cordless hacksaw.
"We all have to help each other," he said.
"We have to get out of this situation together; we have to move this country forward, in good times and bad."
Rescue workers and desperate residents are racing against the clock to clear the rubble and debris left by the quakes in an effort to reach missing loved ones. (Reuters: Maxwell Briceno)
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