On Wednesday evening, Graciela Mora was in a multistory apartment building with a friend. Then, with cruel suddenness, the earth began to shake, and the two women’s fates diverged.
A day later, Ms. Mora was pulled out of the pancaked rubble of the building in La Guaira, the port city that was among the worst-hit by Wednesday’s powerful earthquakes in northern Venezuela. A news video crew was at the scene, and Ms. Mora managed to recount her experience.
She said she had reached for her friend as everything came crashing down, but that she “was gone.”
“When the earthquake started, I held on really, really, really tightly to the door frame. So much so that I broke my finger,” Ms. Mora said.
But the building was not strong enough to withstand the double earthquakes, 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude in strength and whose combined shaking lasted almost a minute. The structure collapsed.
Video shows what appear to be local volunteers cheering as they extract Ms. Mora and pull her onto a stretcher.
La Guaira, a port city north of Caracas where Ms. Mora was rescued, is where the most severe damage and loss of life has been reported from the quakes. At least 250 buildings were damaged, officials said, and on Friday morning the death toll stood at nearly 600.
Rescue teams have begun to arrive in Venezuela from all over the world. Hundreds of people, both dead and alive, are still trapped in the rubble, according to Venezuelan officials. Shock awaits those who survive.
“I still haven’t had a chance to cry,” Ms. Mora said minutes after her rescue.
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