Search team from Los Angeles joins earthquake rescue efforts in Venezuela

+ 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 Search team from Los Angeles joins earthquake rescue efforts in Venezuela In Venezuela, emergency crews - including a team from LA - are working tirelessly to reach those still missing after last week's earthquakes. The Americas Search team from Los Angeles joins earthquake rescue efforts in Venezuela July 2, 20264:48 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By John Otis Search team from Los Angeles joins earthquake rescue efforts in Venezuela Listen &middot; 4:24 4:24 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5877393/nx-s1-9833521" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript In Venezuela, emergency crews - including a team from LA - are working tirelessly to reach those still missing after last week's earthquakes. Sponsor Message A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: People are still searching for survivors in Venezuela from last week's earthquakes that killed more than 2,200 people. The Venezuelan government has been slow to react, so much of the job has fallen to international rescue teams, including a crew from Los Angeles. Reporter John Otis has more.

+ UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #1: Keep scooping. Keep scooping. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish). UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #1: Keep scooping. JOHN OTIS: From the roof of a collapsed 12-story building in the coastal town of Caraballeda, an American search-and-rescue team is digging down. Helping out are Venezuelan volunteers. Some are the relatives of three teenaged girls who are trapped in the debris. UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #1: 'Cause all the dust and the dirt just keeps going into the hole. OTIS: The Americans are members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which previously deployed to Nepal, Mexico and Turkey after earthquakes in those countries. They've tunneled down. They're trying to get down to about the ninth floor. They've got aluminum ladders in there. They're bringing in jackhammers, shovels. They've also brought with them highly sensitive listening devices. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish). OTIS: When it's time to use them, a man with a bullhorn demands silence. (SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Shouting in Spanish). OTIS: Then the rescue team tries to communicate with the victims. MICHAEL TOEPFER: We go through a series of commands, telling them, if you can hear me, tap or knock twice, three times. OTIS: That's LA firefighter Michael Toepfer. TOEPFER: And so what we're hearing are faint knocking, tapping. The last confirmation we had was about an hour ago. OTIS: I'm with them on Day 6 after the quake. Nichole Bosson (ph), one of the team's doctors, says if they have food and water, victims can sometimes survive that long. NICHOLE BOSSON: My first deployment was to Nepal. The USA teams had a rescue of a 14-year-old boy at five days. And there's truly real belief that we can still pull out live victims, you know, if we're able to get to them. UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #2: Up? You going up? UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #3: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #2: OK. OTIS: That's a big if. The girls were in apartment No. 908, three floors down from the roof. In addition, the building twisted when it collapsed. Khaterine Roa, the mother of the girls, climbs onto the roof to try to guide the team to the girls' bedroom. UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #4: Hey, guys. KHATERINE ROA: (Speaking Spanish). UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #4: She's now seeing... ROA: (Speaking Spanish). OTIS: A few Venezuelan military officers show up to watch, but Roa says her government has mostly been AWOL. By contrast, the LA firefighters, who arrived Monday, have been working around the clock. ROA: (Speaking Spanish). OTIS: "I'm very grateful that the Americans are making such a big effort to rescue my daughters," she says. "I just hope they're still alive." The team seems to be getting close. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Spanish). OTIS: One of the girls' cousins has been crawling into the tunnel to remove debris. He says they've found clothes, toys and a set of darts that belongs to their family. UNIDENTIFIED RESCUE WORKER #5: Stand back. Stand back (ph). OTIS: But now the sun is going down, and the ruins remain a confusing maze. DANIEL ALTRUZ: There's another tower that fell into it, so we're not sure if it's floor we're dealing with - ceiling, floor. So we have to cut through those layers in order to kind of get to where we think we're going. OTIS: That's firefighter Daniel Altruz. ALTRUZ: We still have the tapping from the patient, but it's just so hard to pinpoint their location. OTIS: Darkness falls. Then, sometime after midnight, the tapping sound stops, so now the focus will shift to retrieving the girls' bodies. But there's one bit of good news. Nearby, a search team from Jordan has rescued a 2-year-old boy who was trapped for six days in the rubble. He is now recovering in a Venezuelan hospital. For NPR News, I'm John Otis in Caraballeda, Venezuela. (SOUNDBITE OF BRAMBLES' "IN THE ANDROGYNOUS DARK") Copyright &copy; 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(); }); } })();