Venezuela Earthquakes: What Comes Next

On June 24, I was in an Uber rushing from speaking at Stanford to catch a flight back to Direct Relief’s headquarters in Santa Barbara. We were running late, and traffic was a mess. It wasn’t looking good.

“Oh, no,” said my colleague Brea Burkholz, looking at her phone. “This is serious…” We had just gotten an alert that two massive earthquakes had hit Venezuela.

Suddenly, the traffic and potentially missed flight seemed trivial.

Direct Relief immediately began reaching out to partners to assess damage and see how we could be most useful.

The following morning, Direct Relief began funding search-and-rescue teams deploying to Venezuela. Within days, as requests for medical aid started coming in from local healthcare organizations, Direct Relief began mobilizing tons of medical aid.

Nearly three weeks later, the images of collapsed buildings and rescue teams have largely faded from the news.

And the question arises: What comes next?

Earthquakes are measured in seconds. Their consequences are measured in weeks, months, even lifetimes.

In northern Venezuela, the first days after the earthquakes were defined by search and rescue, urgent medical response, and the race to reach people in time. Direct Relief helped support specialized responders, including Bomberos Unidos Sin Fronteras, a Spain-based search-and-rescue organization working on the ground in La Guaira alongside local firefighters and Venezuela’s Civil Defense authorities.

Thousands of people have been rescued alive. Thousands more remain missing. And as the official death toll rises, experience from past disasters suggests the number will likely increase in the days and weeks ahead, while secondary health risks continue to grow for people who survived the initial disaster.

For families sleeping outside, for patients who left medications behind, and for health workers caring for injured neighbors in damaged facilities, the crisis is not receding. It is entering a longer and more complicated phase: keeping health facilities functioning, maintaining access to essential medicines, supporting displaced families, and backing the local responders who will carry this response long after public attention has moved elsewhere.

Thirty-eight hospitals were damaged in the earthquake, including three that are no longer operational, reducing care capacity just as injuries, displacement-related health risks, and interrupted treatment needs are increasing.

That damage compounded a health system already under severe strain. Even before the quakes, about 50% of operating rooms and about 81% of public-hospital beds were inoperative, leaving fewer places to treat trauma, maintain routine care, and absorb a sudden surge in need.

That is one of the hardest truths about earthquakes. The shaking stops, but the consequences reverberate through everything from health systems to supply chains.

It also underscores why humanitarian aid has to move with both speed and discipline.

In a disaster this complex, sending aid is not enough. Shipments must reflect verified needs, local conditions, clinical capacity, and damaged transportation and logistics networks. Poorly planned assistance can create additional strain; carefully planned assistance can help keep care moving.

Direct Relief has already mobilized humanitarian aid for Venezuela, including essential medicines, emergency medical backpacks, and hygiene items to support people who have been displaced. Additional aid is bound for Acción Solidaria and The Wayuu Taya Foundation, two Venezuelan organizations working directly with affected communities.

Direct Relief is also supporting the deployment of a multidisciplinary medical team from Mexico and Colombia. The team includes clinicians, rehabilitation specialists, mental health professionals, and logistics personnel prepared to support trauma care, primary care, physical rehabilitation, psychological support, and safe coordination in affected areas.

In every crisis, the most important responders are local.

Right now in Venezuela, they are neighbors, nurses, doctors, firefighters, pharmacists, community organizations, teachers, faith leaders, and people whose job descriptions never included disaster response, but who step forward because the need is directly in front of them.

Direct Relief has seen this in outbreaks, wars, wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes: outside assistance matters most when it strengthens the people and organizations already closest to the crisis and with the most at stake.

For many families, recovery will far outlast the world’s attention. That is why sustained, locally grounded support matters.

Direct Relief will continue responding as long as there are needs it can help meet. That commitment reflects both the trust people have placed in Direct Relief and the responsibility Direct Relief has to the people of Venezuela: to respond quickly, carefully, and for as long as help is needed.

— Amy

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