Twin Earthquakes Strike Caracas

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Richard Spurr for LBC. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Uh let's now uh turn to our Latin American correspondent, John Bonfilio, because as I mentioned to you about twenty minutes ago, uh breaking news that uh an earthquake which has hit uh Venezuela a number of hours ago um has caused widespread uh disruption. Um news I think still a little bit sketchy uh coming out of Caracas, uh which of course is is one of the places that's been affected. Uh so uh John, um thanks very much indeed for joining us at short notice. It struck, as we understand it, at um 11 p.m. British summer time. And uh what more can you tell us in at this early stage? Good morning to you.

Jon Bonfiglio 0:39

Yeah, hey, good morning. Yeah, a few hours ago, 6 p.m. local time, two consecutive earthquakes uh hit Caracas and the um the sort of the surrounding region, in particular the coastal region, um 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale. The the government, um, the uh the the president Elsie Rodriguez has declared a state of emergency. As you say, sketchy details at the moment, but what is pretty clear is that this is by any standard a major situation. We we're already aware of multiple buildings having collapsed. We expect high casualties and potentially an expected death toll to rise over 10,000. Uh we uh I understand that the uh that was felt as far away as Colombia, and we have we're seeing residents on the streets, and um the government has urged uh people to leave damaged uh buildings. The main airport in Venezuela in Caracas has been closed due to serious uh damage, and it's not just affected Caracas but also urban centres uh along the coastal region, and what we're seeing now is rescue efforts beginning to be mobilised, but they're likely to continue through through the night. So realistically, I mean as always with earthquakes, this is a sort of a confused, opaque picture, and we're gonna get uh a clearer view of what's been taking place by morning, I would expect, but um but that's even then. I think it's gonna take a few days to really uh gauge the full extent of what's taken place in Caracas and and this regions uh tonight.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Well, 7.2, 7.5 on the RICS scale, you mentioned there were two separate quakes identified. I mean, that's a pretty high figure. And you know, particularly when you've got the epicenter near you know built-up urban centres like uh Caracas or you know, relatively built up. Uh you mentioned that a state of emergency uh had been declared. Um uh is there any indication as to just how successful the initial um rescue uh operations are and you know getting getting buildings safe, getting people clear of danger areas? Is that all proceeding uh as far as we can tell from the outset fairly efficiently?

Jon Bonfiglio 2:44

So as regards the collapsed buildings and damaged buildings, it's it's very difficult to say at the moment. There's definitely a lot of people that are missing and unaccounted for, and residents uh are being urged to sort of um congregate in um in high visibility public squares where the government is saying that there's going to be information given about loved ones. It's important to say that um that this was a public holiday in Venezuela, so families were kind of uh gathered at home uh in sort of celebration. Uh and so there was a there was a pretty high um high number of individuals that were in domestic residences, which perhaps they wouldn't have been at this time at 6 p.m. on the on the Monday. What you say about Caracas, I think, is really interesting because um ordinarily say, I mean, Latin America is is is sort of used broadly speaking to to earthquakes, but there are areas which are more used to it than others. So, for example, if we talk about Chile, um there you often have uh earthquakes that are much stronger in the Richter scale, but the the the fact is that the country is pretty prepared for these events, especially as regards to build building her own regulations. The issue, one of the issues with Caracas today seems to be that although it is quite close to a number of um active fort lines, it it is not a city which is regularly struck by earthquakes. So it's sort of built in a steep valley with a with a high water table which amplifies uh tremors and it has a history, in particular with its um with its sort of difficult economic generation, has a history of poor building practice, so that makes collapse a sort of um of these uh and damage to these buildings an ongoing problem. So it seems to be that more than the the size and the scale of the earthquakes itself has generated the devastation.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

I mean, just finally, um I'm got a line here going in um from from Reuters. Um I think they they spoke to one individual, uh an 80-year-old pensioner who lives in southern Caracas, uh called uh Maria Romero, who said the earthquake was horrible and even worse than one uh which they could remember, um which a deadly earthquake, uh magnitude 6.3. That was back in 1967, and you know, these quakes at 7.2, 7.5. So uh as you say, you know, if that's the last one that uh Maria Romero remembers in 1967, this is not a regular occurrence and will be a great shock, not just for people, but of course even uh for the emergency services.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:58

You're absolutely right. And that earthquake in 67 is part of sort of Venezuelan ingrained part of Venezuelan memory, and that earthquake had a casualty list of um in excess of 200 killed, and we're talking about significantly higher figures. I mean, obviously Caracas is a very different you know city and very different beast to what it was in nineteen sixty seven, but uh you can uh I think you're you again you're you're absolutely right to sort of cross reference and and correlate across to that, because if that had such a significant impact on Venezuelan sort of uh history and cultural memory, uh we can only imagine what this one is going to generate.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

John Bonfiliar, thanks very much indeed for taking.