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Venezuela Quake Toll Nears 4,500 as Recovery Moves From Rescue to Housing

The disaster has created a multibillion-dollar rebuilding need that the government says is constrained by frozen assets held overseas.

Overview

  • The twin earthquakes that struck on June 24 measured 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude and are the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century.
  • Official updates list 4,490 dead, 16,740 injured and roughly 19,500 people sheltering in temporary camps while tens of thousands more remain displaced.
  • Search-and-rescue operations have largely shifted to body recovery, medical care and camp support as officials report more than 1,100 aftershocks since the quakes.
  • International aid deliveries, including 100,000 U.S. aid kits and shipments reported from Russia, are supplementing a United Nations appeal for nearly $300 million in relief funding.
  • Authorities have begun a Unified Housing Registry and plan initial housing allocations even as the UNDRR estimates direct damage at about $37 billion and officials press for release of frozen overseas assets to fund reconstruction.