On the 24th (local time), as a series of strong earthquakes struck Venezuela, the death toll topped 900 and the number of missing exceeded 50,000. Amid this, searches for the missing are struggling on the ground due to a lack of rescue equipment and road controls.
National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodríguez said in a TV address on the 26th that the death toll from the series of earthquakes had risen to 920. He added that the number of injured had increased to 3,360 and the number of displaced had topped 4,000.
The official death toll released by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in the morning was 589, but it increased by more than 300 in just a few hours.
Rodríguez also said, "A total of 1,423 buildings nationwide were found to be damaged," adding, "Not only residential buildings but also hospital facilities and commercial stores were destroyed."
But rescue work is moving slowly. That is because there is a shortage of equipment to lift building debris, while the arrival of rescue teams is also delayed.
In this regard, Venezuelan authorities said that "the inflow of regular vehicles is hindering rescue activities" and that they would "control some roads in the affected areas to facilitate the entry of rescue teams and relief vehicles."
The UN estimated direct damage from the earthquakes at about $6.7 billion (about 10.2845 trillion won). It also estimated that up to 6.76 million people were directly or indirectly affected.
Tom Fletcher, the UN deputy under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, told AFP in an interview that "because more than 50,000 people are missing, searching the building debris will be a massive task."