A mother and her nine-month-old baby were pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building in Venezuela by a U.S. search and rescue team assisting in the aftermath of dual earthquakes that have killed more than 1,400 people and left scores more missing.
Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 shared a video of its members pulling a woman from the rubble of a collapsed building. Neighbors cheered as she was pulled from the wreckage.
Another video, shared by the U.S. State Department, showed the baby being removed from the rubble wrapped in blue fabric. The baby’s face was blurred, but it could be heard crying.
“Against impossible odds, hope endures,” the department wrote, adding that “every life saved is a victory.”
Both had “only minor injuries,” the Virginia search and rescue team said.
“This is our why,” the team wrote. “The delivery of hope.”
The team is one of several U.S. assets deployed to Venezuela to help in the aftermath of the deadly quakes. A senior administration official said Saturday that nearly 250 specialized civilian rescuers, including the Virginia team, have been sent, along with aid planes, mobile hospitals and the USS Fort Lauderdale, an amphibious military ship.
The Miami-based Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 2 were on the ground in Venezuela “conducting comprehensive ground & aerial damage assessments across affected areas,” the Los Angeles County Fire Department said on X. The department said in another post that there were 71 Los Angeles-based members of the team.
Volunteers from Mexico, El Salvador, Switzerland and beyond were also operating in the country, Venezuelan officials said Friday.
The situation in the country has grown more desperate by the hour since the twin earthquakes struck on Wednesday. People have taken matters into their own hands, digging through the rubble of collapsed homes and apartment buildings to search for loved ones while citing a lack of government aid.
Venezuelans have reported seeing few state rescue teams in the hardest-hit areas, though acting President Delcy Rodríguez said the Venezuelan government was mounting a full response. The government of Caracas said Saturday that about 200 people had been rescued. But online databases say about 51,000 remain missing.
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Because the two quakes took place within a minute, many people did not have time to evacuate their buildings, Northwestern University professor emeritus Emile Okal told CBS News. The shallow depth of the quakes led to a massive impact on the surface.
The figure likely includes people who have been unable to communicate with loved ones due to the lack of cellphone signals, and some reports may be duplicates, according to the Associated Press. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours to be a crucial time frame to retrieve people alive, though that can be extended if they have access to food and water.
Diana Sandrano told “CBS Saturday Morning” that she will search for her missing brother “as long as it takes.”
“He deserves to live and have a future,” Sandrano said, after a day of searching.