The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are returning to Venezuela, this time for the provision of foreign disaster assistance. Amphib USS Fort Lauderdale has arrived in the port of La Guaira, and is providing damage assessment surveys with her embarked Marine Corps helicopter units. The aircraft are also moving U.S. government personnel and SAR crews around the region to help them reach high-priority sites. U.S. Southern Command has dispatched additional assets from the other service branches to assist as well, including the LCS USS Billings.
The worst of the quake damage is centered on the Yumare region of Venezuela’s central coast, west of Caracas. The area was hit by back-to-back magnitude 7 earthquakes, leveling buildings and killing hundreds. The official death toll stands at 1,700, but is believed to be an undercount, given the number of bodies processed at local morgues. The number of missing people stands in the tens of thousands, and the USGS estimates that the final toll could reasonably exceed 10,000. The odds of survival for anyone trapped in the rubble diminish with time, and magnitude 4 aftershocks continue to complicate the search effort.
Nearly 60,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the twin quakes, likely – civil engineering experts say – because of lax local standards for multistory construction. Extensive bystander and press imagery from the region has documented evidence of unreinforced concrete construction, lacking the rebar needed to resist an earthquake’s severe racking forces.
Landing craft operations from USS Fort Lauderdale (Courtesy USN)
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The Marine Corps mobility capabilities are helping move SAR teams where they need to go, civilian SAR coordinator Capt. Mike Eddy told CNN. The service has also released footage of its amphibious landing crafts in operation, ferrying supplies from USS Fort Lauderdale to the beach.
The U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard is in Venezuela to oversee the U.S. military contribution to the relief effort for U.S. Southern Command.
