The evening sky over northern Venezuela turned turbulent on Wednesday as two successive quakes ripped through the region, the first a 7.1 magnitude tremor that was quickly followed by a more forceful 7.5 shock just under a minute later.
Panic at the stadium
At a packed baseball venue in the coastal city of Morón, the ground began to sway, sending players and spectators scrambling for safety as the stands shuddered and the ballfield lights flickered.
Witnesses described a sudden rush of adrenaline as the arena’s concrete arches creaked and a section of the upper tier gave way, scattering debris onto the field and forcing the game to halt.
Evacuations and warnings
In Caracas, residents poured into streets and open plazas, clutching children and clutching onto balconies as walls cracked and plaster fell from buildings that had been built to withstand moderate shaking.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state television urging the public to remain outdoors, citing the likelihood of aftershocks that could further destabilize already compromised structures.
Roberto Damas, a Caracas inhabitant, recounted how his apartment trembled violently, tossing him and his family around as if the floor had become a living thing.
Hector Ricci, another local, described the initial gentle sway that grew into a fierce jolt, a sensation that escalated from a whisper to a roar within seconds.
Regional impact and tsunami alerts
The tremors were felt across northern Venezuela and spilled over into neighboring Colombia, where authorities reported minor infrastructure damage but no casualties.
Coastal alerts were issued for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, though the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later lifted the warnings after determining the quake’s energy was insufficient to generate a destructive wave.
Officials said they would spend the night mapping the extent of the damage, assessing collapsed structures and coordinating emergency response teams.
The New York Times noted that the full human toll remained unclear, underscoring the challenges of gauging the disaster’s scale in real time.