A 67-year-old woman, identified as Level, leapt from her first-floor window during the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela, breaking her foot in the process. Her relatives, however, appear to have fared far worse. On Thursday, she sat outside one of the collapsed buildings, Residencias Villamar, hoping that her niece and nephew might have survived by jumping from their fifth-floor apartment onto a mattress outside.

Level believed her mother and sister, who had lived next door in a condominium called Residencias Anna Mar, were almost certainly dead. “We’ve lost them,” she wept as she waited by the wreckage for news and for government assistance. “Please, we absolutely need international help here. Anything and anyone we can get,” she implored, as volunteers combed the rubble for survivors in the absence of official civil protection teams. “We were not prepared for something like this – we’re not used to this.”

La Guaira worst affected

Hotel Avenue in La Guaira, a rundown port city surrounding Venezuela’s main international airport, has been severely damaged by the quake. In a televised address, Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, declared La Guaira the area worst affected by what she called an “unmatched seismic phenomenon.” Rodríguez toured what she described as “ground zero” on Thursday and vowed, “We hope to save as many lives as possible,” adding that international rescue teams were beginning to arrive.

Government reports 250 destroyed buildings

The acting president’s brother, Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the national assembly, reported that 250 buildings had been destroyed, most of them in La Guaira. The scale of destruction exposes the severity of the disaster, which caught many residents off guard in a region not typically associated with frequent seismic activity.

Volunteers step in as civil protection is absent

In the absence of formal civil protection teams, local volunteers have taken it upon themselves to scour the rubble for any signs of life. This grassroots effort highlights the lack of preparedness for such an event in a country already grappling with economic and political challenges. The call for international aid reflects the desperation of survivors like Level, who now face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives after the quake.