Lewin, the State Department official, said the US military would help coordinate flights to bring in search and rescue workers, mobile hospitals and supplies. He said two 80-person search teams were at work and a US Navy transport ship was docked off the coast of Venezuela ready to receive airlifted survivors in need of medical attention. Lewin said it is a “race against the clock” to find people injured in the quakes. “People are trapped under rubble, and the priority is to get the search
and rescue teams and the medical professionals and others to them as quickly as possible to save lives,” he said. In the city of Maiquetia, people lined up outside stores and pharmacies that served them one by one behind closed doors. At one point a woman in a crowd threw herself to the ground to protect a package of diapers with her body, desperate to keep it. Traffic and throngs of motorcyclists at times disrupted search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly asked for silence
to try to hear signs of life under the rubble, but bikers – civilian and uniformed – continued to honk horns and rev engines to the first responders’ frustration.
Venezuela earthquakes, almost 70,000 missing, search and rescue teams, mobile hospitals, US military flights, US Navy transport ship, Maiquetia, rubble rescue, diapers package incident, traffic disruption
70,000 missing is insane. Hope they find people.
So wait the U.S. has a navy ship just sitting there? I mean good, but how does a whole ship get involved for quakes like that, seems like too much logistics.
The diapers thing broke me. Like why were they even letting stores be behind closed doors? Also the honking and stuff… you’d think people would know not to mess with rescue. Unless that was staged for TV or something?
Race against the clock but they’re dealing with traffic and motorcyclists honking?? Seems like the problem is people not taking it seriously. Also I saw somewhere it said it was like 70,000 dead not missing so now I’m confused. If those search teams are 80-person each, how many is that total and why can’t they just search faster with drones or something? Seems like common sense but what do I know.