Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuelan capital of Caracas Powerful back to back earthquakes hit Venezuela's capital, Caracas. NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with journalist Maria Graterol who is in Caracas. The Americas Two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuelan capital of Caracas June 24, 20269:11 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Marc Rivers , Scott Detrow , Michael Levitt Two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuelan capital of Caracas Listen · 3:49 3:49 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5869804/nx-s1-9823967" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Powerful back to back earthquakes hit Venezuela's capital, Caracas. NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with journalist Maria Graterol who is in Caracas. Sponsor Message
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Venezuela has been hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in its recorded history. Two powerful quakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck the capital city just 39 seconds apart on Wednesday evening, causing buildings to collapse and damaging critical infrastructure. Emergency crews are assessing the scale of the devastation. Authorities have yet to release an estimate on the number of people killed or injured. A few minutes ago, I spoke to journalist Maria Graterol in Caracas.
Maria, what were you seeing? What were you feeling when the earthquake struck?
MARIA GRATEROL: Well, when the earthquake started, I was in my house, and it was, like, super hard. It was - I mean, before, I had not experienced something like that. You could see how the walls were moving and everything was moving around, too. So we, as far as we could, we got out of the apartment and we went to a - like, to a square. And there were a lot of people in there. People were screaming because it was really, really, really hard, and it lasted, like - I don't know - like, about 30 seconds or more. Right now, there are no official reports about damages, about people who may have died. But, well, I imagine that we will have those reports soon.
DETROW: Yeah. In the meantime, tell me what you've seen yourself, what you're seeing around you in terms of damage.
GRATEROL: Well, there are buildings - walls have fallen and there are some buildings that they have no walls. Some others - they are completely on the floor. When you go into the buildings, there's water running on the floors because some pipes are broken or got broken. So that's what we have been seeing right now. We see people out in the streets. They are, like, in groups, with their families, with their pets, cats, and, well, they are basically waiting outside the buildings and outside their houses. And they are covered with some sweaters. They have some blankets, too. And they are just, you know, like, trying to wait for something because they cannot really enter their houses in some of the areas of the city.
DETROW: My understanding is that earthquakes of this magnitude are pretty rare in Venezuela, and there's a lot of concern that just a lot of the buildings would not have had the infrastructure, the code requirements to withstand an earthquake. Is that what people are worried about?
GRATEROL: Yes. I mean, they're worried because we know that the government in the past hasn't done, like, a lot to help people in this context, no? So they're expecting, like, some agents or some officers from the government to visit the places to really check if it's - I mean, like, the places are safe so they can go back to their houses, to their homes. But we don't know if that's going to happen. There are reports of people - I mean, you can see on the WhatsApp groups, like, hey, this is the name of my brother, this is the name of my sister who was in the building that collapsed. Can you please try to help me find this person? And so far, we haven't seen, like, these groups, like groups of civil protection, for example, that help people in these natural disaster contexts. We haven't seen them yet, but I imagine that at some point, they will go and visit places to see if they can actually help people get out of the places where they're stuck or something like that.
DETROW: That's journalist Maria Graterol joining us from Caracas. Thank you so much, and stay safe.
GRATEROL: Thank you to you. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{309:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(81)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(770),o(154),o(175),o(93),o(448),o(253),o(128),o(130),o(755),o(174),o(756),o(254),o(77),o(774)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},783:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(309)}},[[783,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();