Five uplifting Venezuela earthquake rescue stories

Rescuers from across the world are racing to uncover victims from collapsed apartment blocks, family homes, and storefronts days after back-to-back earthquakes rattled Venezuela.

While the twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, have taxed Venezuela’s teetering emergency infrastructure, they have also given a human dimension to the nation’s struggles as rescuers pull pregnant women and young children from the rubble. Here are five of the most remarkable rescue stories so far.

1. Father and son pulled from rubble after four days

Rescue teams, including specialists from Virginia’s Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team, pulled a father and a son from a collapsed building on Sunday. Rescuers loaded the pair, who were visibly weakened from the four-day ordeal, onto stretchers before whisking them off to nearby ambulances. The teams scoured the ruins for 12 hours as onlookers watched with amazement.

That rescue was remarkable in part because it came outside of the 72-hour “golden window” in which rescuers expect to find survivors. The rescue took place in Venezuela’s coastal La Guaira state, one of the regions hit hardest by the earthquakes.

2. Mother rescued from rubble with newborn child

Dayana Patino, also a resident of La Guaira, told the BBC about how her 18-day-old son, Juan David, gave her “motivation to be awake and alert.” Patino was doing chores next to her newborn in her eighth-floor apartment when the earthquake first struck.

“As long as he was alive, I was going to be alive,” Dayana said of her experience trapped under the rubble. “Every now and then I was touching his nose for proof that he was still breathing.”

The mother and son emerged from their ordeal after 32 hours. Both of Dayana’s legs were damaged when the earthquake hit, though her son sustained only minor injuries. Juan David is the youngest known survivor rescued in Venezuela so far.

3. Woman gives birth surrounded by rubble

Footage posted on Thursday shows a woman lying on a sheet as another woman displays a crying infant to the crowd that had gathered around them. Without overhead lighting, bystanders shone their flashlights to help the midwife work.

“Bringing a baby into the world while the earth shakes in #laguairavenezuela is the biggest challenge of my life,” Maria Fernanda Teran, who posted the video, wrote.

4. Search teams rescue 11-year-old child after three days

An 11-year-old boy named Moises survived under nearly 10 feet of rubble in La Guaira until he was freed Saturday. The effort to rescue the boy, led by a team from Colombia, took nearly six hours. 

“The way the structure collapsed created a pocket of space that sheltered him, and he sustained no injuries,” firefighter Nelson Quintin told the New York Times.

Rescuers have used dogs, cameras, small drones, and high-tech sensors to comb La Guaira for survivors. Many more volunteers have come to their aid with buckets and trowels in hand.

5. Firefighters keep trapped dog alive with water

Rescuers with the Caracas Fire Department thought that their work at a collapsed home was complete when they heard a bark emanating from the rubble.

US SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAMS DEPLOY TO HELP VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE

The team located the canine, which was pinned under a metal bar, and slipped it a plastic water bottle to drink from. They then began clearing the rubble by hand until finally freeing the pooch.

“Our emergency teams continue to work tirelessly on search and rescue efforts, reaffirming our absolute commitment to saving lives,” the department wrote on social media. “We press on, with strength and solidarity!”