An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck Venezuela this Wednesday at 6:04 PM local time, causing at least two buildings to collapse in the Los Palos Grandes area, municipality of Chacao, in eastern Caracas, according to a report from the scene by journalist Román Camacho.
The commissioner Luis Gonzalo, director of Polichacao, confirmed in statements from the site that in that municipality there were "two structures completely affected and more than 90 structures with damage."
In San Bernardino, part of the Libertador municipality, a building also collapsed, while in the municipality of Sucre, a structure lost the walls of several floors. The municipality of Baruta reported no significant structural damage.
At 8:20 PM, rescue teams continued working on the collapsed structures in Los Palos Grandes, with reports of people trapped under the rubble.
Officials from Polichacao, Civil Protection, Caracas Firefighters, Highway Paramedics, and the Bolivarian National Police were deployed to the scene.
Until that moment, the authorities did not have official numbers of deceased or injured. "At this time, we cannot provide the figures," Commissioner Gonzalo stated when asked about casualties.
Communications were also affected: according to Camacho, the Movistar telephone network was "completely collapsed," which hindered the coordination of operations and the acquisition of information from other states in the country.
The epicenter of the earthquake was reported near Morón, in Carabobo state, approximately 150 kilometers west of Caracas, at a depth of just 10 kilometers. This shallow depth amplified the effects of the seismic event in the capital. The earthquake, which lasted about 51 seconds, was also felt in Colombia, Curaçao, and Aruba, and triggered a tsunami alert for Venezuela and the Caribbean. Caracas airport was evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Structural damage was also reported in the states of Aragua, Miranda, Anzoátegui, and Bolívar, although no precise details were available in the initial hours.
The government of Nicolás Maduro remained silent for at least an hour and a half following the event, without issuing an official report on damages and casualties, according to Tal Cual Digital.
Venezuela recorded a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in August 2018, with its epicenter in the northern part of the Paria Peninsula, which was also strongly felt in Caracas. The Los Palos Grandes area has historically been vulnerable due to its alluvial soil, which amplifies the effects of seismic activity, and the most devastating precedent in that area remains the 1967 Four-Hundred-Year Earthquake.
Commissioner Gonzalo urged the public to remain calm and stay in open spaces: “It is important to stay in open areas due to a possible aftershock.”
Filed under: