As Venezuela responds to earthquake devastation, volunteers take charge
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As frustration mounts over government rescue and recovery efforts, everyday citizens are taking charge to find survivors and distribute aid.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoCatia la Mar, Venezuela – Andreina Velasquez looks up at her multistorey apartment block overlooking Catia la Mar, a coastal city in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira. The concrete slabs that once separated each floor are now stacked on top of each other. "They fell like a pack of cards," she said, pointing to where she used to live on the sixth floor.
She left her apartment a couple of hours before a pair of deadly earthquakes shook Venezuela on June 24, reaching magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, respectively. She had gone to get a new key cut and was at the beach when the first quake struck. Her neighbours did not make it.
She remembers one as a gentle, retired man, another as a woman with a young daughter who had just moved in. They had been overjoyed with their view of the sea. Velasquez is still struggling to process what she has lost.
Her state was among the hardest hit by the earthquakes. But despite her grief, she has started to hand out face masks to passersby, hoping to shield them from the gusts of dust drifting from the collapsed buildings and the stench rising from the rubble. “I've been here every day.
Other people came to help, but they don't have helmets, they don’t have gloves, they don't have masks. That's why I'm helping," she said.
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