A clergyman walks through rubble in La Guaira state, Venezuela, on Friday, after a series of powerful earthquakes last month reduced buildings to ruins. [Reuters]
A clergyman walks through rubble in La Guaira state, Venezuela, on Friday, after a series of powerful earthquakes last month reduced buildings to ruins. [Reuters]

The death toll from a series of earthquakes that struck Venezuela last month surpassed 5,000 as of Friday local time.

National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez announced that the official death count had reached 5,069, according to AFP.

The number of injured remained at 16,740, unchanged from previous tallies. Rodriguez had earlier said most of the injured had already been discharged from hospitals.

The disaster began on June 24, when two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck in quick succession, devastating La Guaira state, a coastal region north of the capital Caracas.

At least 300 of the dead have yet to be identified. Authorities have been collecting DNA samples from the bodies before interring them in communal graves to aid future identification.

About 20,000 displaced residents are living in temporary shelters, though many lack adequate access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.

The Venezuelan government has not released official figures on the missing, but opposition groups have separately estimated that around 30,000 people remain unaccounted for.

The UN estimated on June 27, three days after the earthquakes struck, that as many as 50,000 people could be missing.

The US Geological Survey has projected that the death toll could range from at least 10,000 to as many as 100,000.

Search and rescue operations continue in some areas with support from international teams, but the focus is shifting toward humanitarian relief for survivors, debris removal and reconstruction, Bloomberg reported.

Some residents who have been unable to locate family members have pleaded with rescue workers to search specific buildings, but teams say they cannot act independently because the government's unified command center designates search zones on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, an official from the UN's International Organization for Migration warned that El Niño could cause severe additional hardship for earthquake survivors.

Lucas Gejis Akrat, IOM Venezuela's disaster risk reduction coordinator, said discussions are underway within the UN about the possibility of a very strong El Niño forming. "El Niño could hit Venezuela at a time when many residents have already lost their homes," he said.

El Niño is a climate phenomenon in which sea surface temperatures near the equator rise above normal levels, triggering major shifts in weather patterns and driving extreme events such as typhoons, floods and droughts.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a report last month that El Niño had already begun this year, and estimated a 63 percent chance it could develop into a super El Niño, with tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above normal.

In an appeal issued Friday, IOM called on the international community to provide $98 million to support Venezuela's relief and recovery efforts over the next 12 months.

The UN estimated direct physical damage from the earthquakes at $6.7 billion, and said total economic losses — including indirect damage — could be up to three times that figure.


soohan@heraldcorp.com