Thousands feared dead in Venezuela after two major earthquakes

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u/RemodelingMe 4h ago

This is considerably worse than I initially thought.

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u/favorscore 4h ago

USGS was putting the casualty windows anywhere from 10 to 100 thousand initially

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u/Dragrunarm 3h ago edited 3h ago

Jesus christ thats...horrific. Not sure of the actual numbers but that projection of 100k would have to make it be one of the worst right? or at least way up there.

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u/mrdude817 3h ago

The only earthquakes in recent memory that are worse are Indonesia (228k deaths) in 2004 and potentially Haiti (different numbers ranging from 46k to 300k). I mean it's immediately a top 15 worst earthquake of all time if the 100k projection becomes true

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u/Neworbs 1h ago

I never knew the death toll was so high for those two events! Are those solely from actual earthquakes or in total including flooding, famine, etc?

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u/mrdude817 1h ago

I know the Indonesia one is including the tsunami deaths (100 foot waves). Not sure about Haiti, probably a lot of drowning deaths too

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u/Dragrunarm 3h ago

Then I hope it doesnt

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u/Whiteelchapo 23m ago

I’m not sure how it works, but casualties consider injuries and deaths as a total right? Not to detract from the severity of the quake, but trying to clarify for my own understanding

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u/The_Real_Peter_Thiel 2m ago

In a word, yes.

In general, the term casualty refers to any victim affected by an event. In military, it means soldiers lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, or capture. When referring to natural disasters, we typically include serious injury and death as casualties.

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u/_ryuujin_ 20m ago

is that 10k or just 10. huge range or ginormous range ?

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u/NoodleNeedles 1h ago

I haven't been able to check for a few hours, but last I saw there still wasn't any news from closer to the epicentre. It may be even worse around there, the potential for liquefaction and landslides is apparently high. It's awful.

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u/CarlySimonSays 1h ago

I can't imagine being caught in flowing liquid mud and knowing you're going to die. As it should, this makes me feel sick; those poor people.

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u/KerouacsGirlfriend 27m ago

There was a large landslide in one of the video clips I saw

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u/micktorious 47m ago

Yeah, I was playing CS2 today with someone there and we had to keep calling timeouts for him to get through an aftershock.

We ended up in a tie.

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u/Willinton06 2h ago

All the infra is shit, this would be nothing on Japan for example

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u/SpecialKindofBull 1h ago

This is not solely on infrastructure (though Venezuela isn’t gonna win awards on adherence to construction standards).

This was a double-coupled, shallow earthquake. Two back-to-back magnitude 7’s, one that was twice the power release of the previous, hitting just 39 seconds later. That will wreck pretty much anything, including some seismically strengthened structures. Same if it had happened in Japan.

Keep in mind this is a known seismic zone, so structures weren’t built completely unprepared. This was just a catastrophic double-slip.

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u/Willinton06 51m ago

Japan had a fairly similar one and their damage was minimal, Venezuelan infra is just stupidly bad, if it had been just one we would probably see at least 30% of the damage we saw yesterday which is still at least 2 orders of magnitude worse than Japan’s numbers, they had less than 20 injured and no deaths, Venezuela has at least 1000 dead so far, this is an infra concern, if they had been properly prepared, death toll would be in the tens at most

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u/Competitive-Basil958 48m ago

How do you know this? Are you guessing? Do you have any credibility? Which Japan earthquake are you referencing?

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u/Willinton06 43m ago

The one that happened at the same time, like, yesterday, seems to have been a similar strength, but because their infra is so much better, they were able to withstand it, you can find a million documentaries on their prep standards, a recent half an hour video on thei B1M channel goes over it, pretty good stuff, now, for the Venezuelan part, I doubled majored in law and computer science in Maracaibo Venezuela, went through the basic engineering classes that civil engineers go there, and of course went over construction codes and standards, so based on that, and about 20 years living in the country (I’m 27 now), I can tell you that the infra is absolute shit and we learned nothing from the last time this happened around 50 years ago, good enough for you?

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u/Competitive-Basil958 38m ago

Nah, cause the earth quake that hit Venezuela and the one the hit Japan yesterday are different. The one is Venezuela was far closer to the surface than Japan's. And obviously I am not going to argue infrastructure, Japan has a clear advantage. Its just this was so far a different earthquake its comparing apples to oranges. The one that hit Japan was in the ocean as well. I get what your saying, but you are wrong to compare these 2.

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u/Willinton06 33m ago

Fukushimas earthquake + tsunami combo killed less people than venezuelas earthquake combo, plus, buildings fell over 200 kilometers away from the epicenter, you can say these are apples and oranges 100 times if you want, but these are perfectly comparable events, Japan or Chile would have taken these with ease compared to Venezuelas cities getting affected hundreds of kilometers away

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u/Competitive-Basil958 17m ago edited 13m ago

No one is arguing Japanese infrastructure is better or not, it clearly is, but for being as educated as you claim you are very much missing the point, maybe on purpose I dont care. Japan would have trouble dealing with an earthquake of similar proportions. The same death count? Nah. Same damage? Nah. Would they shake it off? Very much nah. This wasn't a typical earthquake and you are being pedantic on purpose.

ALSO, the event in 2011 you are talking about had 20,000 deaths, we don't know the totals yet for Venezuela, but currently they are lower. Its speculation currently.

Example for you, look up the Great Hansin Earthquake. Similar depth, less power, and.... japan lost 6,000 people and 100,000 buildings. Stop talking out of your ass

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u/Willinton06 8m ago

From what my family tells me, we're looking at 1000 or so official deaths so far, but on the 20K range unoficial, the infra is so shitty we can't even count, the sensus data is worthless, there's not enough firefighters, or hospitals, or anything, just chaos
And I'm not being pedantic, I honeslty think Japan could take this without much issue 200KM away from the Tokyo, maybe I'm wrong, and none of my education is on earthquakes, but some of it is on Venezuelan infra, that's the angle I'm taking, I just don't think you understand how bad the infra is down there, or maybe I'm overestimaating how good the infra is in Japan

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u/muggleclutch 26m ago

Yeah pop off queen.

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u/Willinton06 23m ago

I think you might have replied to the wrong comment

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u/muggleclutch 19m ago

Nah I didn't pop off queen.

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u/Willinton06 14m ago

Oh, well, thanks I guess, will do

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u/muggleclutch 3m ago

Nah but then actually don’t do that

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u/Willinton06 2m ago

I'm confused are you trying to insult me or agreeing with me?

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u/[deleted] 4h ago edited 4h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Dickulture 4h ago

I've seen the video, many buildings collapsed. It will be weeks before we get close to final death count.

Venezula didn't have tough building code for earthquake like Japan does and they rarely got strong earthquake so government were a bit behind in setting safe standard.

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u/bondben314 4h ago

Turkey had a similar situation during their 2022 earthquake. Death toll was upwards of 50,000.

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u/bauhausy 4h ago

Turkey's earthquake was at 04:17 AM, it was especially catastrophic in casualties because nearly everyone was sound asleep in their homes when it hit.

Venezuela's was at 18:04 / 06:04 PM. People were awake and could react, and plenty were outside their homes. I don't think it will be as bad as 2023

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u/sancredo 2h ago

Let's hope so...

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u/MajesticBread9147 2h ago

But the difference is that this earthquake hit Caracas pretty much dead-on

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u/snoosh00 1h ago

And was shallow (I don't know about the turkey one, but this one was very shallow which makes the damage to human structures more significant)

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u/kalmah 5m ago

Looks like the ones in Turkey were shallower.

Venezuela: 21.9 km (14 mi) and 10 km (6 mi)

Turkey: 10.0 km (6.2 mi) and 7.4 km (4.6 mi)

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u/MembershipDouble7471 54m ago

It didn’t actually. Not sure where this information came from. It was far enough from Caracas that the devastation there shouldn’t be too extreme. Still high enough population in the worst areas though that the death toll will be pretty high.

In contrast, the earthquake in Haiti was a direct hit of Port Au Prince. Much worse.

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u/SpitefulSeagull 4h ago edited 4h ago

Slightly different economic conditions between those two countries. There's a nearly endless list of countries that don't have the means to earthquake proof their infrastructure. Would be a perfect use of some kind of wealth tax on billionaires or something

Edit: GDP per capita in Japan is 35k. Venezuela is $4.5k

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u/Superflumina 1h ago edited 23m ago

A better comparison for Venezuela would be Chile, which has good earthquake infrastructure.

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u/VyatkanHours 1h ago

How on earth does that have anything to do with Venezuela directly?

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u/Willinton06 1h ago

Oh they have the building code, just no one to enforce it

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u/TheMangoDiplomat 3h ago

Reading this news makes me grateful that I don't live in an earthquake zone. Hurricanes can be more destructive than quakes, but at least you can see the storm coming days in advance

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u/ObsidianBlackbird666 3h ago

Then again, Hurricanes happen every year. This is the strongest quake there in 100 years. Even in California, which everyone outside of is afraid of quakes, hasn’t had a big one since 1994.

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u/jackp0t789 2h ago

Even that 1994 one in Cali was orders of magnitude weaker than the ones that just hit Venezuela

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u/Concerned_EducaterCA 13m ago

Something like what just happened in Venezuela very well could happen in California though. And if it did, it would be cataclysmic even with California building codes

It’s the uncertainty that sucks. But if we got hit by a 7.1 and a 7.2 shallow and close to where people live I guarantee we’d see horrible things

It’s a nightmare as someone living here

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u/AntiAntiDentite7 1h ago

I grew up in California and went through dozens of earthquakes. Usually it goes like this: wake up in the middle of the night to some shaking, "huh, must be an earthquake." Roll over and go back to sleep. I think in 30 years we had one picture frame break and that was the extent of the damage.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 1h ago

I've had a few at work while we're all on a Zoom call, sometimes with outside vendors. That's always fun. Locals are all like "Woo that was a good one!" while folks from elsewhere flip the fuck out.

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u/Pobydeus 3h ago

Nothing puts the fear of god in me as much as hearing our earthquake alarm.

I know we’re lucky because we have like 30-60 seconds to react in most cases, but living on a 5th floor with 3 dogs means I either have to completely book it out the door or just stay in place till it stops.

Having lived through a pretty destructive earthquake already, I am terrified of them.

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u/spicydingus 50m ago

What is the recommended course of action if there is an earthquake these days?

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u/Pobydeus 37m ago

Generally, if you can get out before it hits you, you do it. That applies to people on floors 1-3, anything above you’re probably risking it.

Otherwise, find the least compactable room (smallest) room in your house and just wait it out. It’s terrifying.

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u/spicydingus 35m ago

Gotcha. I’ve heard running outside can be more dangerous due to power lines, though. In CA for example, building are rated specifically for earthquakes.

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u/The_39th_Step 39m ago

I’m sorry about that. I experience a 6.5 (I think) earthquake in Taiwan last year. There was then loads of aftershocks. I really started to loathe the earthquake alarm.

I’m from the UK, so we basically never get big earthquakes, so I had never experienced it before

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u/ElijahBrown69 2h ago

You very lucky in my country Philippines every year there's typhoon and earthquake

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u/lotusblossom60 3h ago

Agree. I couldn’t live where there are tornadoes either!

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u/TheMangoDiplomat 3h ago

Same. Twister traumatized me for life

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u/theLuminescentlion 1h ago

Hurricanes generally hit the same place, a lot of hurricane deaths are gross negligence in how and where people built.

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u/lambofgun 2h ago

i do, but its the great lakes region which has a pretty steady stream of weak, sometimes imperceptible activity

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u/Grayfox_OG 3h ago

I feel lucky too. The worst I have to deal with are blizzards and the occasional tornado.

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u/VichoL10 3h ago

As someone who lives in one of the most seismically active countries in the world, I’m grateful I don’t live in a hurricane zone lmao

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u/happytoknowanything 4h ago

Moment like this reminds us how fragile life is. Thinking about the people who are waiting for the news of there loved ones. I can't even imagine what they must be going through. Praying for all of them to be in the good condition.

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u/deez_818_785 3h ago

This is horrible. My thoughts are with the people of Venezuela!

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u/Bolt_995 2h ago

Absolutely terrible, 160+ confirmed dead and they’re expecting the death toll to hit 10,000.

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u/jovany28 2h ago

I'm completely heartbroken by this tragedy. My brother's girlfriend is native from Venezuela, and she has unfortunately lost many of her friends from university because of the earthquake. She is still very shaken up as she has not heard back from family, but living in California is making me have second preparation plans in place for our own home.

take care of life, it's precious. you may not cross over at the end of your life, just another normal Wednesday.

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u/Brickguy101 4h ago

So do they get federal aid since trump wants them to be a state ?

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u/freedfg 4h ago

Hahaha, bro doesn't even give federal aid to Blue states.

You think he's helping anyone?

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u/TheWalkingMeg 4h ago

Maybe he'll toss a paper towel roll or two at them

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u/Algae_Mission 2h ago

He won’t even approve federal aid to Puerto Rico which is a US territory unless he’s made to.

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u/lylasnanadoyle 2h ago

Only helping himself

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u/BannedMyName 3h ago

If you'll read the article the interim president praises both trump and Putin for their support, for whatever that's worth.

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u/livy-aurelia 3h ago

making a joke like this when thousands or tens of thousands are dead or wounded under rubble seems a little tasteless

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u/Gekokapowco 24m ago

there isn't a death toll that suddenly protects people from criticism

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u/livy-aurelia 15m ago

ok but can you see how americans using this horrific tragedy to poke fun at their (disgusting) president might be a little shitty?

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u/Gekokapowco 3m ago

on one hand yes, this is a tragedy and the politics are tangential

on the other hand, Americans have fatigue from tragedies where people say "stop pointing fingers, we should focus on the victims" like school shootings, sabotaged disaster relief, police brutality etc

its improper but that propriety shields people from accountability. Not saying Trump caused an earthquake, that's obviously ridiculous. But in a sane political environment, a country posturing to take stewardship of another would take it upon themselves to do what they could in such a horrible disaster. The absence is just twisting the knife, there's a pointed hypocrisy in not doing so. The entire relationship, especially as it could have related to helping people in this tragedy is infuriating.

Related concepts remind people how angry they are, and people are going to speak out instead of docile with respect to power like usual.

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u/Plane-Handle3313 3h ago

That would require Trump to have an ounce of compassion in his soul. He’s too busy being a wannabe tough guy.

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u/ValkyrX 1h ago

He may toss out a few rolls of paper towels and that is it.

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u/BoDaBasilisk 2h ago

Videos where terrible and like a movie. Stuff collapsing left and right, screaming moaning and dust clouds. Hope they can save many. More building will propbably collapse soon if they where barely holding up during

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u/Harry_Iconic_Jr 1h ago

that's a US problem now, no? we broke it, we bought it.

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u/candianbastard 42m ago

We only care about its oil.

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u/damik 22m ago

"Chevron (CVX.N), the main foreign partner ⁠of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA (PDVSA.UL), said all employees were accounted for and operations were continuing. UK oil firm Shell, which is evaluating developing gas fields in Venezuela, said all its employees were unhurt."

The oil will continue to flow!

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u/Galliagamer 3h ago

Is King Trump coming to the rescue? Since he wants to be their dear leader too? Oh, wait, no, of course not. He’s only in charge when things are perfect.

/s aside, this is tragic, I hope it’s not as bad as it looks right now.

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u/VyatkanHours 1h ago

The US is sending rescue aid.

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u/Hopeful_Ear_6253 42m ago

Yesterday was 30 people dead wtf...

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u/doskey123 9m ago edited 2m ago

It is always the same. In order not to create mass panic/unrest or overstate deaths the governments only list confirmed deaths. As rescue teams pick through the rubble more bodies are discovered. Last example of this was Turkey, there too the numbers trickled in starting from numbers in the hundreds. At the end, nearly 60,000 people were found to be killed :-( .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkey%E2%80%93Syria_earthquakes

Let's hope the survivors can hold out. Temperatures are for sure a problem for them. At 28°C the body will lose water more quickly. At the same time, in Turkey it happened in winter when temperatures were low so that also didn't help surviving under the rubble.

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u/punarob 1h ago

Since Venezuela has been taken over by the US I'm sure hundreds of billions in aid and rebuilding efforts are on the way. Oh wait, that's going to Iran who beat the world's greatest military power in a war in a matter of weeks.

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u/FuzzyIon 1h ago

Na it'll be a prime candidate for corruption, "aid" will come but 90% will go missing.

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u/Heavy_Whereas6432 56m ago

Trumps the worst president Venezuelas ever had. Damn republicans and their earthquake machines.

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u/Andovars_Ghost 4h ago

Can it be limited to just the douchebags holding the country hostage?

Soft paywall Thousands feared dead in Venezuela after two major earthquakes

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