International rescue operations faced severe transportation bottlenecks on Saturday after back-to-back high magnitude earthquakes devastated northern Venezuela, killing at least 1,430 people and leaving nearly 68,900 others missing.
The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes heavily damaged Simon Bolivar International Airport, halting civilian flights and leaving a specialist British crisis-response team stranded at Madrid Airport for over 24 hours.
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Airport Damage Halts Flights
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez confirmed severe destruction in the coastal state of La Guaira and parts of nearby Caracas, where hospitals remain at a breaking point due to decades of underfunding.
The United Nations Development Programme and local agencies reported that the disasters injured 3,200 individuals and left 3,100 people homeless across the affected regions.
Serve On international operations lead Vernon Young stated that his 11-member technical rescue team remains desperate to reach Caracas with specialized seismic and acoustic tracking equipment.
"These things are always time critical. We're a light team and can move quickly.
The sooner you get there, the more chance you have of saving lives," Young said.
The British Government Fire Service Team is currently en route with a heavy rescue deployment of 68 personnel to support the ongoing local efforts.
"Every situation is different, in Turkey they were pulling live victims out 14 days after the earthquake.
We hope we can get out there and make a difference," Young added.
The organization is collaborating with French and Spanish teams encountering identical transit obstacles while attempting to secure alternative military transport flights.
