Despite the survival window having long passed, people and their pets are continuing to be pulled alive from the rubble following last week's catastrophic earthquakes in Venezuela, as rescue efforts near one week.
Video and photos posted on social media from international teams of first responders capture some of the harrowing recoveries and frantic, ongoing rescue attempts of babies, children, men, women and their beloved pets.
Some videos — including ones shared by El Salvador's president and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday — provide updates on people who remain trapped and can be heard buried alive as first responders continue to cut through slabs of concrete and other obstacles to safely reach them.
Difficult Rescues Amid Instability
In a former shopping complex in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira, the voice of a man is heard behind a wall of smashed concrete and brick as a woman with an El Salvador rescue team uses a tube to funnel him liquid through a hole, according to a video shared by El Salvador's president on Tuesday afternoon. The 44-year-old man's rescue was described by President Nayib Bukele as one of the most difficult his country's search and rescue teams have faced, in part due to the complexity and instability of the surrounding structure and recent rain and aftershocks. Despite the obstacles, the man continues to respond and they remain hopeful of his rescue, he said.
Another video shared by Bukele on Monday shows rescue crews using a camera to help locate and free a small dog that was buried alive beneath concrete slabs, brick and other debris. It took five hours to pull the dog, named Giselle, from the rubble, Bukele posted.
A similar video shows another puppy found buried alive in the ruins of a former residential complex. The video, also shared Monday by Bukele, captures the unseen dog's barks and whimpers before being dug out and carried into view, wearing what appears to be a bow around its head.
U.S. Rescue Teams Save Infant and Others
Among the rescues carried out by the U.S., American search and rescue teams were credited on Saturday with miraculously pulling a baby from the rubble. Video shared by the U.S. State Department captures the child kicking and screaming while bundled in a towel. "Against impossible odds, hope endures," the State Department wrote with its post. Three additional lives were saved by U.S. rescue teams on Sunday, the department previously reported.
Many other rescue attempts haven't been as fortunate, with Reuters reporting that rescue teams from Ecuador and the U.S. halted hourslong operations early on Tuesday in Macuto, another town in La Guaira state, after no longer hearing responses from a mother and her three children who were trapped beneath a nine-story building. "In the end, we believe the days have already passed and that what we will find now is death," Ecuadorian Major Jorge Montanero, leader of the EQ11 team from Guayaquil, told Reuters.
Massive International Response
The U.S. response to the tragedy has been described by the State Department as the largest natural disaster response this century. In addition to more than $300 million earmarked towards the response, the U.S. has deployed four urban search and rescue teams, composed of more than 300 first responders and 23 search canines, the State Department said Monday. In a video shared by the U.S. State Department on Tuesday afternoon, a woman wearing scrubs directs American first responders to the site where a woman and daughter were said to be heard screaming for help. After workers are seen appearing to use power tools, cameras and listening equipment to reach them, the video concludes with the words: "The search continues into the night."
Elsewhere, in another sign of hope, a video shared by El Salvador's president on Monday shows a man identified as 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas being pulled from a dark cavern on a stretcher to cheers. The man later spoke with Colombian news outlet NTN24 from a hospital room, saying he was told that he was the building's sole survivor.
A video shared by a rescue team with Spain's Military Emergencies Unit on Tuesday shows a search and rescue dog searching for survivors in what appears to be a submerged former parking garage. Another video shows Spanish first responders calling out to anyone alive beneath a wall of rubble, asking them to tap three times. One worker stands looking at an electronic device as he appears to listen with headphones. Earlier on Saturday, the same unit shared a video of workers freeing a man from a hole. The man was said to be one of two people saved after several hours of intense debris removal and stabilization.
Thousands Missing, Widespread Damage
More than 2,000 rescue workers from 27 countries, including more than 160 search dogs, have been deployed to the area, according to a report by the United Nations on Monday. These include teams from the Americas, and as far away as France, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The international response comes amid growing criticisms by Venezuelan citizens that the local government isn't doing more to help, leaving many to attempt rescues on their own using shovels, ropes and bare hands.
Around 2,500 structures were damaged in the area, many of which collapsed entirely, according to the UN, which has warned of widespread food shortages in La Guaira. Approximately 40% of the earthquake's survivors are without shelter and living in streets, public spaces, churches, schools or improvised shelters, the UN said. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the death toll could run into the tens of thousands. Around 42,300 people are still listed as missing on one unofficial website, a decrease from approximately 45,500 people on Monday. The UN said it has procured 10,000 body bags in anticipation of more bodies being found.
