Rescuers Pull a Survivor From The Rubble 5 Days After Devastating Venezuela Earthquakes

A miraculous rescue occurred in Venezuela Monday as crews pulled a 21-year-old man alive from the rubble five full days after two devastating earthquakes hit the country.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported on the latest “truly incredible rescues.”

“A baby just 18 days old and his mother were pulled out from under a building 32 hours after the earthquake hit. And you can see there, a 21-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a building today. That’s five days after the earthquakes hit,” Blitzer said.

CNN contributor Stefano Possebon reported on the rescues from Caracas, saying, “Everyone knows that three days is normally the last moment that you can find a survivor alive from an earthquake disaster like this one. It’s been five days now. There are still miracles.”

Possebon continued:

And those miracles give us the hope that are fueling this search and rescue operation in this country. But everyone is conscious that the more time progresses, the fewer those miracles will be. So, there is also a moment of a nation that is coming together to recognize the magnitude of the tragedy that they have just lived through, and understanding how to make sense of it. Thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, no longer have a place to live. Tens of thousands have been injured. Tens of thousands have lost a loved one. There is also a collective grief that at some point will need to be addressed. And five days into this tragedy, that collective grief is starting to boil over the surface.

Possebon added that Venezuela doesn’t have the resources for such a large-scale response, and is relying on search-and-rescue teams from other nations for help.

“Yesterday we spent a few hours with the rescue team from Fairfax County in Virginia, for example, and the the disparity between the equipment that the U.S. crew had compared to the Venezuelan rescue workers was all there to be seen,” Possebon said. “So it’s understandable that there is this frustration because a lot of people want answers and the government is not prepared to give them at this moment.”

Venezuelan authorities say at least 1,450 people died in the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that occurred last week just 39 seconds apart.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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