Rescuers from across the world are racing to uncover victims from collapsed apartment blocks, family homes, and storefronts days after back-to-back earthquakes rattled Venezuela.While the twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, have taxed Venezuela’s teetering emergency infrastructure, they have also given a human dimension to the nation’s struggles as rescuers pull pregnant women and young children from the rubble. Here are five of the most remarkable rescue stories so far.
1. Father and son pulled from rubble after four days
Rescue teams, including specialists from Virginia’s Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team, pulled a father and a son from a collapsed building on Sunday. Rescuers loaded the pair, who were visibly weakened from the four-day ordeal, onto stretchers before whisking them off to nearby ambulances. The teams scoured the ruins for 12 hours as onlookers watched with amazement.That rescue was remarkable in part because it came outside of the 72-hour “golden window” in which rescuers expect to find survivors. The rescue took place in Venezuela’s coastal La Guaira state, one of the regions hit hardest by the earthquakes.2. Mother rescued from rubble with newborn child
