The death toll from Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes has climbed to at least 1,430, officials said Saturday, as rescuers race against time to find survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

The two powerful quakes struck Wednesday, leaving thousands injured and tens of thousands still unaccounted for. Rescue teams are working through shattered neighborhoods in and around Caracas and La Guaira, but efforts have been slowed by a shortage of heavy machinery and hundreds of aftershocks that continue to shake already-damaged structures.

One runway at the international airport near Caracas has reopened, easing a major bottleneck as aid, supplies, and foreign rescue teams arrive from the United States and other countries.

The rescue effort reached a grim milestone Saturday night, marking roughly 72 hours since the earthquakes hit — a critical window in which trapped survivors have the best chance of being found alive. Officials and rescue experts say survival becomes far more difficult after three days without water, though some people can still be rescued several days after a disaster.

David Emmanuel Villa Tejeda, who is in Caracas with the Mexican rescue team Los Topos, described the search conditions as extremely difficult.

“It’s difficult because the earthquakes came one after another, and weren’t very deep,” Villa Tejeda told journalists accompanying the rescue efforts in Venezuela, “That’s what caused so many buildings to fall.”

Speaking about one collapsed building where his team was working, he added that “it’s becoming very difficult to find them alive.”

Loyce Pace, the Red Cross’ Regional Director for the Americas, said the constant aftershocks are putting both survivors and rescue workers at risk.

“I don’t know if people are aware of how constant this threat has been,” said Pace.

A Venezuelan official said Saturday that at least 430 aftershocks have been recorded since the twin quakes.

“There are continuous tremors every time I talk on the phone with my team there,” Pace said. “It is something quite constant and quite frightening. This means our teams must be very careful when entering these communities to assess the damage or provide services.”

Hospitals, already strained after years of neglect, are struggling to treat the injured, while frustrated families continue waiting for word on missing loved ones as rescue crews dig through rubble by hand in some areas.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)