by Chevige Gonzalez Marco
CARACAS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Until Wednesday afternoon, it had been an ordinary day in Caracas. Then suddenly, a terrifying roar drowned out broadcasts of the World Cup 2026 matches, as people ran in panic down from apartment buildings.
Our community, Ciudad Tiuna, in southwestern Caracas, has dozens of 14-story residential towers, as well as open-air parking areas with wide spaces between the buildings. The parking space is where my 16-year-old daughter Mariana and I decided to run.
We were holding hands tightly, and as we tried to find a stable and safe place to contact the rest of our family, we saw the desolation on the faces of our neighbors.
The two earthquakes that jolted Venezuela Wednesday evening were both above magnitude 7. The official death toll has reached 188, with more than 1,500 people injured.
During the quake, water tanks could be seen moving. Covers and other objects flew through the air, and there was a deafening sound, as if metal was cracking and the buildings were roaring.
There were desperate mothers rushing down from the buildings with barefoot children, suitcases left in the middle of parking lots and frantic parents running to protect their little ones.
Some loud noises, or something that felt like an aftershock, continued setting panic among the people taking shelter.
The first plan for Mariana and me was to locate the rest of our family and make sure they were safe, since they were in another part of Caracas.
The calls could not get through. The anxiety multiplied as we tried to find our loved ones, including little Fabian, 8, who had gone to a classmate's home to work on a school assignment.
Minutes felt like hours, like whole hours. Calls, messages, until Francelis, my wife, told us they were arriving at our community in Ciudad Tiuna.
Fabian ran across the middle of the field. He and Mariana embraced as never before. Only afterward did my family find the courage to go back up to our sixth-floor apartment and check if anything had broken.
A little calmer, we regretted something else: Flavia, the youngest in the family, would have her birthday the next day, today, Thursday, as I write this chronicle. Now there will be no party, but there will be big hugs because we are together.
Caracas and other cities along Venezuela's central coast have been badly affected, and my thoughts are with those who have suffered most, those who have lost loved ones and those who have lost their homes.
I had experienced a similar sense of panic in the community only once before, on Jan. 3 this year, when U.S. attacks targeted nearby Fort Tiuna, a military facility in Caracas.
Ciudad Tiuna and its residents have had a truly unexpected year, one that has deeply affected them and that they will remember forever.
(Chevige Gonzalez Marco is a Xinhua employee in Caracas) ■
