Portuguese and Portuguese-Venezuelans are trying to find out the whereabouts of family members from La Guaira who survived the double earthquake in Venezuela, but who have since been taken to local reception centers and in Caracas.
“Yes, they were rescued. There is great disorganization here. They are taking them to one place, then transferring them to another and they cannot locate their family members,” a member of the management of the Centro Luso-Venezuelan de Cátia La Mar (CLVCM) told Lusa.
Freddy de Quintal, treasurer of the CLVCM, also explained that he himself has a nephew who survived, stating that he was in the church, because he was making his first communion.
“I have a nephew whose mother died; the building collapsed and he was in the church because he was going to take communion. We have been looking for him, they sent him to the golf course in the Caribbean, he was there because he appears in the register, but they don’t know where they sent him”, he said.
Freddy de Quintal further explained that he found out through the Internet that his nephew would be at the La Guaira Sports Center, where he went to find him, but without success.
“We got there and it wasn’t there. He’s missing, we can’t find him anywhere. We are very distressed because the father is in Madeira and the mother was here. They had already bought tickets to return to live there once and for all (…). The wife passed away and we were unable to find the son. We are looking here in Guaira, in Caracas, everywhere”, he highlighted.
The CLVCM leader regretted that the authorities had closed the highway that connects the city of Caracas to that state.
“It’s a problem, the highway is blocked at the moment, they don’t let anyone pass, except those with a safe passage. It’s hard, it’s really hard what we’re going through here”, he said.
He also explained that he was in the town of Playa Grande, one of the affected areas of La Guaira, and that it is unrecognizable, to the point that people are disoriented.
“I know Playa Grande well, and suddenly being there I didn’t know where I was. Because, everywhere, everything collapsed, big buildings collapsed (…) completely. I had to ask people where I was because I didn’t know, Playa Grande is so unrecognizable,” he stressed.
This Portuguese-Venezuelan explained to Lusa that the double earthquake was even more devastating than the floods of 1999, which caused many victims, including Portuguese.
“This was worse than that tragedy, because it only lasted a second and everything collapsed. The tragedy (floods) lasted a whole night and, when we woke up in the morning, everything was destroyed. But this only lasted a second, it was horrible, horrible”, he said.
Regarding the Luso-Venezuelan Center of Cátia La Mar, he explained that it suffered considerable structural damage.
“At the top, we had the room where Portuguese classes were taught. Its rooms collapsed, everything fell. At the bottom, the restaurant where the Portuguese spend their time, everything is cracked, practically (…) destroyed”, he said.
He also explained that there were no victims because the double earthquake occurred on a public holiday.
However, he said, in La Guaira there are still no total numbers, but thousands of people died, including more than 20 members of the CLVCM, including the vice-president.
The earthquakes recorded in Venezuela on June 24 caused at least 1,943 deaths and 10,571 injuries, according to the most recent official report.
Among the dead, there are at least 68 Portuguese and Portuguese descendants, and another 74 are missing or uncontactable.
According to the UN, more than 50 thousand people are missing.
Several countries, including Portugal and other European Union states, sent search and rescue teams to Venezuela.
The base of operations for the Portuguese mission to respond to the earthquakes is based in the Luso-Venezuelan Center of Cátia la Mar, in La Guaira, an area with a large concentration of Portuguese and Portuguese descendants.
The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes occurred 200 kilometers from Caracas, less than a minute apart and were followed by more than 20 aftershocks, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Dozens of buildings collapsed or were seriously damaged in the capital Caracas and in the region of La Guaira, one of the most affected.
