A 7.2 foreshock followed by a 7.5 monster earthquake has Caracas and the coastal city of La Guaira buried under tons of debris from collapsed buildings and ruined homes. According to Reuters, the death toll as risen to 3,342 with 16,470 injured and 17,345 homeless.
AFN reported previously on how Samaritan's Purse had a rapid response team immediately react, heading to Venezuela at the prompting of the U.S. Department of State. With them were doctors, nurses, power generators, water purification systems and anything else needed to set up a hospital down there.
Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, expects his group to be in Venezuela for a while.
“I think we'll be involved in this for some time. This is a very devastating event that has taken place in Venezuela. We were there for some time working in Haiti. About five or six years after the earthquake, we were still working there,” stated Graham.
Peter Holz, emergency field hospital director for Samaritan’s Purse, says they are still pulling bodies out from under the rubble.
“As you push further into the heart of the disaster, there are just hundreds of collapsed buildings, piles of rubble. There are a lot of people that are sleeping outside,” Holz says.
His doctors, he says, are seeing the kinds of trauma one would expect from a devastating earthquake.
“Compound fractures of arms and legs, broken pelvis. So orthopedically, our surgeons are very busy,” Holtz states. “What we're seeing down here is just an incredible amount of dense destruction from very large buildings.”
Add that to normal health concerns — appendicitis, births and the like. Holz says they expect to be there for several months, at least, then turn the hospital over to locals.
“Our field hospital will remain here in La Guaira for the Venezuelan health care workers to run,” Holz states.
He's asking for prayer.
“That they have hope, and that ultimately Christ is known through the work of the hands of the people that are down here,” Holz says.
