A search is underway in Venezuela for a Greek woman whom rescuers reportedly pulled from the ruins of her home alive thirteen days after the deadly twin earthquakes struck the country on June 24.
Her whereabouts and condition remain unclear following the reported rescue as Venezuela’s disaster zones struggle with collapsed emergency record-keeping. It remains unknown whether she was alone when the building collapsed and if she has been hospitalized since her rescue. The earthquakes also destroyed three other Greek-owned homes, although no deaths among members of the Greek community have been reported in those cases.
Greek community searches for missing woman in Venezuela
Members of Venezuela‘s Greek community, together with a local priest, have begun calling hospitals, health centers, and temporary medical facilities in an effort to track down the woman, according to Greek public broadcaster ERT.
The lack of centralized records has made the search especially difficult. Community members are checking every possible medical facility by phone in an attempt to determine whether she was taken to a hospital, a makeshift clinic, or another temporary care center.
In the areas hit hardest by the earthquakes, rescue operations, medical transfers, and family-tracing efforts continue to rely heavily on volunteers as well as local networks and international aid teams.
Death toll of Venezuela earthquakes climbs
The search for the Greek woman comes as Venezuela grapples with one of South America’s worst earthquake disasters in decades. Government figures released Tuesday put the official death toll from the June 24 twin earthquakes at 3,685, with 16,740 people injured.
The earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck within seconds of each other, causing widespread destruction in Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira. Reuters reported that nearly 18,000 people remain homeless following the disaster.
Officials have not provided a firm estimate of the number of people still missing. Earlier reports placed the number of unaccounted-for people at nearly 50,000, while other estimates suggested a lower figure. ABC News reported that the International Rescue Committee said children were among the nearly 50,000 people still missing as search teams combed through the rubble, sometimes by hand.
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