on the 24th of june, a national holiday commemorating the battle of carabobo during the war of independence as well as st. john's day, at around 6pm, venezuela was hit with back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes.
i thought the bombing of caracas in january 3rd earlier this year was the scariest thing i'd experienced. i take that back. this was the scariest thing i've experienced in my life. and the thing is i wasn't even hurt, my building took little to no damage and my family is fine and accounted for (thank god for that!) but i feel so sick because the damage has been devastating in other parts of the country and i can't stop thinking about the thousands of people who lost their homes, their loved ones and their lives throughout this whole thing, and how the death toll will continue to rise as hospitals are understaffed and rescue teams are underequipped. i'm enraged because we are so underprepared for a disaster like this, because this government doesn't give a fuck about its people and the money that could've gone for disaster prevention and relief was all pocketed by the regime. blood on their hands, if there was even room for any more than they already had.
it's 9am as i type this and i haven't slept at all since yesterday. i felt aftershocks through the night and even right now. some of them might have been my own paranoia and stress from the situation but others were definitely very real.
i'm still trying to process it. this is the biggest natural disaster to hit venezuela in our lifetime.
if you have relatives or you know somebody from venezuela and you can't get ahold of them after the earthquakes, try to see if you can find them in the following sites: (y si eres de venezuela, por favor contribuye con reportes de lo que sepas)
https://desaparecidosterremotovenezuela.com/
https://terremotovenezuela.app
https://sosvenezuela2026.com/
https://venezuelatebusca.com/
