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Twelve-year-old Fabiana was pulled alive from the rubble of a 10-storey residential building in La Guaira on June 26 after spending 32 hours trapped following the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, according to a BBC report on her rescue. The girl sustained a fracture in her left foot along with scrapes and bruises but no other serious injuries, the report stated. Her mother Karina told the outlet she raced to the scene upon feeling the quakes, which measured 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude and occurred 39 seconds apart with an epicenter west of San Felipe in Yaracuy state.
Fabiana recounted that she accessed a bottle of ketchup and some grated cheese while shifting through debris to stay conscious during her ordeal, the BBC article detailed. Rescue teams reached her amid ongoing operations that have saved more than 6,400 people alive since the disaster, a Venezuelan information ministry tally cited by Reuters showed. The survival story emerged as one of several reported instances of people pulled from collapsed structures days after the initial strikes that heavily damaged areas around Caracas and La Guaira.
Venezuela’s official death toll from the earthquakes rose to 2,645 by July 3 with 12,666 people injured, according to the Ministry of Communication figures reported by Reuters. A United Nations-backed assessment placed direct physical damage at $37 billion, underscoring reconstruction needs in a nation already strained by economic challenges, that same Reuters dispatch noted. Wikipedia entries compiled from multiple sources list more than 3,300 confirmed dead, over 16,400 injured and tens of thousands missing, with the U.S. Geological Survey initially warning the toll could exceed 10,000.
International aid efforts have included food distribution by organizations led by Chef José Andrés to support survivors and search teams in hard-hit zones, a PBS report from early July indicated. A separate CNN account described the rescue of a security guard named Hernán Alberto Gil Flores after eight days under 29 feet of rubble from a collapsed mall parking structure in La Guaira, an operation involving Chilean fire brigade specialists that lasted more than 70 hours. Such cases have sustained hopes for additional survivors even as fuel shortages and infrastructure damage complicated broader search operations, CNN reporters observed.
Forensic pathologists cited anonymously in a CNN investigation expressed concerns that the government tally undercounts actual fatalities, estimating the true figure could be at least three times higher amid overcrowded morgues. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency after the quakes and has provided daily updates, yet transparency questions persist according to Venezuelan journalists and U.N. coordinator Gianluca Rampolla del Tindaro. The mainshock registered as Venezuela’s strongest since the 1900 San Narciso earthquake, per USGS data referenced across multiple outlets including Wikipedia.
The earthquakes triggered more than 780 aftershocks and caused a small tsunami of 4 centimeters, according to seismic monitoring summaries on Wikipedia. In La Guaira, a state of roughly half a million residents, entire buildings collapsed, leaving thousands without permanent housing as of early July, Reuters tallies confirmed. Aid groups have highlighted the first 48 hours as critical for rescues, a point echoed in social media accounts and news coverage of Fabiana’s extraction from the site.
