Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building, in the aftermath of the June 24 earthquakes Venezuela. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of the June 24 earthquakes, in La Guaira, Venezuela, July 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A damaged building is framed by a window of a bus carrying members of the French Civil Security Training and Intervention Regiment, who have arrived to assist with rescue operations following twin earthquakes that struck the country three days ago, in Caraballeda, Venezuela, on June 27, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Venezuelans took the search for missing loved ones into their own hands Friday (June 26, 2026) in the aftermath of back-to-back earthquakes, citing the scarcity of government rescuers, as the human toll of the disaster climbed to at least 920 dead and more than 51,000 missing.

Citizens digging through the rubble of their homes said they have seen few state rescue teams in the areas hit hardest by the devastating 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes that struck late Wednesday (June 24, 2026), despite authorities projecting an image of a robust government response.

Editorial |​Tragic evening: On the earthquake in Venezuela

The lack of help compounded families’ desperation as the pressure to find buried survivors increased with each passing hour. The South American nation on Friday (June 26, 2026) marked nearly two days since the disaster. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours to be a crucial time frame to retrieve people alive, though that period can be extended if they have access to food and water.

On Friday (June 26, 2026) night, Venezuelan authorities announced they would block off access to La Guaira, the epicenter of the destruction, as chaos and and traffic began to affect search efforts. Government officials said that those who wanted to enter would now have to seek official permits, but provided few details of who would be allowed to enter.

Meanwhile, a broad international aid effort accelerated, with dozens of rescue teams from around the globe arriving in Venezuela or due to arrive there soon.

“Each person saved is a miracle,” said Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the country’s National Assembly. “We are not going to hide absolutely anything about the magnitude of this tragedy.”

Families across northern Venezuela searched in the ruins of buildings for relatives and whatever remained of their lives.

Nazareth Jimenez sobbed into the shoulder of a loved one as she watched neighbors try to cut through slabs of concrete with hammers and power tools in a building reduced to a mountain of debris. “My God, how are we going to get them out of there?” she murmured.

She was in the northern state of La Guaira, just north of the capital of Caracas, where some of the worst destruction unfolded. Jimenez was wracked with anxiety as she waited to see if her siblings, nephews, nieces and friends would emerge from the debris alive.

“We’re making a call for help to the government and countries across the world,” she said, pleading for machines that would be capable of moving collapsed structures. “There are still people alive in there.”

Government forces distributed food and water to survivors in La Guaira as acting President Delcy Rodríguez said her government was mounting a full response during these “critical hours for rescuing people alive.” She welcomed the arrival of rescuers and humanitarian aid from all over the world. She said La Guaira had been militarized and that more help was on the way, even as residents said it was just a fraction of the aid they needed.

The disaster poses a huge challenge for Rodríguez, the former Vice-President who took office in January after the capture and removal of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been facing economic disarray for more than a decade, and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement Rodríguez represents.

The number of dead was expected to climb, and civilians reported tens of thousands of people missing on independent digital databases. The number of missing likely includes those who have been incommunicado due to the lack of cellphone signals in disaster zones. Some reports may be duplicates created when multiple loved ones are searching for the same person.

The number of injured climbed to more than 3,300 as of midday on Friday (June 26, 2026), and authorities said they had rescued 243 people.

The International Organization for Migration said that up to 6.76 million people in Venezuela could be affected by the quakes, some 2 million of them in Caracas alone. Destruction was amplified by the one-two punch of the successive shallow quakes, experts said. Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross’ regional director for the Americas, said “people are still terrified to reenter what were their homes.”

Desperation started to sink in Friday (June 26, 2026) as many families still had not found missing loved ones, continued to sleep on the street or grieved relatives killed in the disaster.

“I’ve been left alone in this life,” said Omar Reyes, who walked through the rubble where two of his children were buried. He said around 20 family members died in the disaster.

In the city of Maiquetía, people lined up outside convenience and grocery stores and pharmacies as the businesses served customers one by one behind closed doors. At one point, a woman in a crowd desperate to keep a package of diapers threw herself to the ground to protect the package with her body.

Traffic and throngs of motorcyclists at times also disrupted search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly had to ask for silence to try to hear signs of life under the ruble, but bikers — civilian and uniformed — often ignored the requests honking horns and revved their engines to the frustration of first responders.

In Catia La Mar, a community adjacent to the country’s main airport, throngs of people began to loot basic goods such as toilet paper and food from stores. Others swarmed a civilian pickup truck that was giving out loaves of bread and water, until a soldier intervened. People turned the parking lot of a pharmacy into makeshift shelter by setting up tarps, hammocks and tents.

A few miles away, Yuleidy Cadenas stood across the street from a collapsed public housing building watching fellow Venezuelans and recently arrived foreign and local emergency crews work on the rubble. She hoped her son, mother and brother would be pulled out alive.

She fled, barefoot, from a collapsing nearby building Wednesday (June 24, 2026) and found her mother’s 12th-floor apartment tower had pancaked. Cadenas, 28, sobbed as she recalled that Friday (June 26, 2026) was her son’s 12th birthday.

“I got on top of the rubble and told them to yell back, and nobody did, not my brother, nor my son or my mother,” Ms. Cadenas said. “I’m just here waiting for them.”

A few minutes later, a body was pulled from the rubble. It was not her mother’s.

Venezuela authorities said Friday (June 26, 2026) that 861 international volunteers from Mexico, the U.S., El Salvador, Switzerland, Colombia and beyond were working in Venezuela. Many more from other countries were expected in the coming hours and days. The U.N. said 1,000 emergency responders in 25 search-and-rescue teams from across the globe were on their way.

Acting President Ms. Rodríguez said she spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday afternoon, and that they reaffirmed their commitment to sending rescue teams and aid equipment.

On the country’s main highway, caravans of state forces, emergency personnel, dump trucks and heavy machinery moved in the direction of the tragedy. A civilian pickup truck carrying thin mattresses had its windows marked with “Help from Trujillo.”

People look at a destroyed building after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 25, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Venezuelans searched for survivors beneath collapsed buildings on Thursday (June 25, 2026) and rescue teams raced to northern areas rocked by a pair of powerful earthquakes that officials say killed around 235 people and left at least 4,300 people injured. 

Also read: Venezuela earthquake: On the streets and in hospitals, Venezuelans scramble to save lives

Thousands were reported missing and buildings were evacuated as far away as Brazil’s Amazon. Rescue efforts moved slowly, with bodies still visible under debris hours after the quakes, while time ran out for some of those who were trapped and injured.

Offers of rescue support, aid and condolences poured into Venezuela. 

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Venezuelans in the U.S. rushed to organize donation drives on Thursday (June 25, 2026) after devastating earthquakes that officials say killed at least 188 people and injured hundreds more in their home country. The United States government and other countries also pledged aid.

Oscar Torres and thousands of others spent the last 24 hours keeping up with a flurry of messages posted to a WhatsApp group that connects people in Venezuela with their families. He lives in Doral, Florida, a city outside Miami that’s home to the largest Venezuelan population in the U.S.

“Already this morning, I was looking at the group in Doral and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” said Torres, a sales manager who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 1995. “They’re talking about making the first shipment ASA

In Washington, the Trump administration said it’s sending $150 million to support relief efforts by aid groups and the United Nations, according to a U.S. State Department news release.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government was mobilizing a disaster response team to Venezuela that includes two urban search and rescue teams from fire departments in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. The U.S. military, which seized Venezuela’s then-president Nicolas Maduro in a surprise January drug arrest, will provide aircraft to help assess damage, assist searches and deliver aid.

Other countries including Mexico and Colombia also promised assistance.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes Wednesday night caused severe damage to the country’s main airport in the capital of Caracas, which could hamper efforts to get aid into the country quickly. The quakes were among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century.

In photos and videos of the aftermath, injured children, animals and civilians are seen covered in dust and blood being pulled out of concrete rubble.

In addition to those killed and injured, thousands more were reported missing — leaving many families members in the U.S. scrambling for updates. More than 7,70,000 Venezuelans live in the U.S., with large communities settling in Texas and Utah, in addition to Florida.

In the Houston area, home to a large Venezuelan community, residents used community Facebook groups and other social media to spread the word about local donation sites. First aid and medical supplies such as gauze, bandages, antiseptics, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers and blood pressure monitors all were in demand.

Local resident Daniel Arenas translated a Spanish-language post into English and shared it Thursday (June 25, 2026) on his LinkedIn page hoping people across Houston would step up and donate.

“I came to this country 10 years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

Arenas, a maritime industry consultant, said that his wife is concerned about her aunt, who lives in a high-rise apartment in Caracas and sent a distraught message on WhatsApp after the quakes hit.

“She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas said. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.”

Arenas said his wife was later able to reach her aunt.

Many of the sites mobilizing donations are in Katy, a suburb about 30 miles (48 km) west of downtown Houston that’s earned the nickname “Katyzuela” because of its high concentration of Venezuelans.

Also read: Venezuela earthquake updates on June 25, 2026

Luis Angarita, who lives in Katy, said his younger sister and family were forced to sleep outside in a park after their home was damaged in the mountain community of Caribia, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Caracas.

Angarita’s sister told him in a WhatsApp message that she’s trying to get everyone to their father’s home on the other side of the capital. But no taxis or buses are running and roads leading out of their mountain community are closed.

“Thank God they’re safe,” Angarita said in Spanish. “There are many displaced people and others are stuck in their homes, unable to leave. They need help.”

In Florida, workers for the Doral-based aid group Global Empowerment Mission on Thursday packed medical supplies, toiletries, cases of bottled water and nonperishable foods to be sent to Venezuela.

Despite damage to airports and roads, the aid group doesn’t foresee delays getting supplies into Venezuela, said Billy Richardson, the group’s U.S. logistics director.

“Sometimes it means using other airports, other means of transport, or even coming into other countries,” Richardson said by email.

Torres planned to contribute money for relief efforts. He still has uncles and cousins who live in Caracas and Valencia, another hard-hit Venezuelan city. He said some of them were injured as they fled buildings during the quakes.

“Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” Torres said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.”

Published – June 26, 2026 05:04 am IST

Back-to-back powerful earthquakes slammed Venezuela on Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in the capital of Caracas and leaving residents shaken. Interim leader Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency as the quakes also forced the closure of the country’s main airport, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to offer aid.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and its epicentre was west of the community of Morón, located along the country’s Caribbean coast, about 168 kilometres (104 miles) west of Caracas. The quake had a depth of 22 kilometers.

It remained unknown if there were fatalities, but some people were injured and buildings had collapsed, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.

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