They race to find survivors of the Venezuela earthquake as satellite images show thousands of damaged or destroyed buildings

CARACAS – The race to find survivors continued Tuesday, six days after two powerful earthquakes devastated northern Venezuela. A NASA assessment based on satellite images suggests that nearly 60,000 buildings may have been damaged or destroyed, and teams from around the world have joined increasingly frantic efforts to find anyone still trapped alive under the rubble.

The confirmed death toll from the magnitude 7.5 and 7.2 quakes, which struck each other a minute apart after 6 p.m. local time on June 24, had risen to more than 1,700 by Tuesday.

With thousands of people still missing, rescuers said time was quickly running out to reach anyone who survived the quake.

Search efforts in the state of La Guaira, which is located on the northern coast of Venezuela on the Caribbean Sea, continued apace, and a US task force from Fairfax, Virginia, was among those working near the epicenter of the disaster on Monday.

Rescuers search for victims in a collapsed building following earthquakes that struck Venezuela and other areas in the Caribbean, on June 28, 2026, in Carrabelada, La Guaira, Venezuela. Jesus Vargas/Getty

CBS News joined the team as they searched under a collapsed building, shouting from inside and outside what was left of the building for anyone who could hear the screams to knock on something three times as a signal.

There was no response.

“My daughter is there,” Miguel Coelho said, desperately asking American rescuer Josh Morrison to help find his 22-year-old daughter.

“There are fourteen people inside,” the father said, “maybe not alive, all of them. But at the end of the story, we need to get our bodies back, you know.” Morrison said his team was responding to such calls for help as best they could, but acknowledged that more than five days after the disaster “it gets more difficult the further you go.”

He said they treat every rescue attempt as if it were the first, “and we will continue working until no signs of life appear.”

Robmar Carolina Garcia sifted through her son Adrian’s belongings amid the rubble of a building. She lost her 13-year-old son and her mother to the earthquakes. They were found clinging to each other.

“He was a very good boy,” she told CBS News.

As Monday night fell, teams attempted to rescue a security guard who had been trapped for five days.

“There is a clock, you know, that will eventually reach a point where rescue efforts have to be called off, but that is well above us, and we will work until then,” Morrison stressed.

According to NASA’s assessment of satellite images taken before and after the June 24 earthquake that struck Venezuela, “approximately 58,870 structures were likely damaged or destroyed throughout the affected area.” NASA

According to its assessment of satellite images taken immediately before and after the earthquakes, NASA said that “approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed throughout the affected area” in Venezuela.

The space agency stressed that it was a “preliminary product produced within days of the event,” which was not confirmed by assessments on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Tucker Ryals contributed to this report.

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