On 24 June two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela. The magnitude of the first quake was 7.2 and the second was 7.5. An estimated 590,000 buildings were destroyed, including vital infrastructure. The death toll has reached more than 3000 people and tens of thousands of people are missing. The number of injured is 16,400 and 17,300 are homeless. As soon as the quake happened people desperately attempted to move the rubble with their bare hands and shovels despite aftershocks hampering their efforts. International rescue teams have joined the overwhelming task of finding survivors.
As the days went by families and rescue teams were greatly encouraged when they found people alive and brought them out from under the rubble. Karina Blanco was just about to start the spinning class she teaches when the earth began to shake. She immediately drove to her home as fast as she could where her only daughter, Fabiana, aged 12, was. When Karina reached her building in Caraballeda she could hardly believe her eyes, “I could see one building, then a gap where my 10-storey building had stood, and then another building.”
Fabiana was in her mother’s bedroom when she felt the earthquakes. She ran into the kitchen, and held on to the counter, as the walls around her collapsed. She was thrown to the ground. She said, “I saw things shaking, falling, breaking, and then the walls cracked. The wall separating my apartment from a friend’s collapsed. At that moment, I thought, ‘I’m going to die. I won’t survive this. No-one is going to rescue me,’”
Under the collapsed building everything was quiet for Fabiana. She was lying face up, trapped by rubble on all sides, with the ceiling almost touching her face. She said, “I’m someone who gets very anxious and claustrophobic. But I don’t know why, a strange calm came over me.” A little while later, a nurse who worked as a carer for her upstairs neighbour’s flat started calling out to see if anyone could hear her. Fabiana responded, “She told me to stay calm and that everything would be alright.” Fabiana could hear nothing but says. “For some reason, I had hope and faith.”
Eventually, 32 hours after the earthquakes, a volunteer called Viktor, who is now Fabiana’s ‘hero’, managed to clear the rubble and bring her out to safety. Fabiana had a broad smile as she was reunited with her mother. Only 3 people from the 50 residents of that block survived.
Psalm 46 says, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So, we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. The Lord Almighty is with us. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’”