Venezuela raises earthquake death toll to 3342, government reports 16740 injured and over 17000 homeless, satellite damage estimates dwarf official building count

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bnonews.com

Venezuela’s government has raised the official death toll from last week’s double earthquake to 3,342, according to BNO News, citing an updated state report dated Sunday. Officials also put injuries at 16,740 and said 17,345 people are now homeless. The quakes struck west of Caracas near Montalbán, and the U.S. Geological Survey described the event as a “doublet,” with two large shocks seconds apart.

The updated numbers point to a disaster that is still being counted rather than concluded. BNO News reports that hundreds of additional deaths were confirmed in the day before the latest update, a pattern typical of large urban collapses where recovery shifts from rescue to retrieval. The government says 6,462 people have been rescued and that nearly 30,000 personnel and more than 27,000 volunteers remain deployed, alongside thousands of international rescuers.

The gap between what authorities say has been handled and what is likely damaged is widening. While the official tally of affected buildings was unchanged from the previous day—856 buildings affected, including 190 collapsed—BNO News notes a preliminary satellite assessment by NASA estimating far more structures damaged or destroyed. Satellite-based counts are not the same as on-the-ground engineering inspections, but they are difficult to ignore in a country where transport, power, and public administration have been strained for years.

Aftershocks continue to add friction to every step of response. Officials reported 995 aftershocks, up from 942 a day earlier, keeping residents out of buildings and slowing heavy equipment work. La Guaira state, north of Caracas, is among the hardest-hit areas, according to the report. Each additional night spent in temporary shelter increases exposure to heat, sanitation problems, and opportunistic crime, while also raising the long-term bill for rebuilding.

The new figures do not resolve the central question for outside donors and neighboring states: whether the bottleneck is money, logistics, or trust. Venezuela’s government says 86,794 families have been assisted, but it has not revised the building-damage totals even as casualty counts climb.

On Sunday, the state’s own update moved the death toll by hundreds in a single day, while the building tally stayed exactly the same.