Almost 50,000 people, including children remain missing under rubble, with rescue workers racing against a closing survival window, IRC teams most concerned about elevated risks to children.
Authorities report 12,721 people have been displaced and 774 buildings have collapsed.
The national water system has failed across seven states, putting survivors, the injured, and rescue workers at risk.
Families fled with nothing; Women and children in shelters have no documents, no medication, nowhere to return.
Some collapsed buildings may contain survivors but the critical window has closed; international crews continue extracting survivors from the rubble as late as Monday.
Caracas, Venezuela, June 30, 2026 — Almost a week after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, and roughly 48 hours after the critical 72-hour survival window closed, search and rescue operations continue. IRC teams and partners on the ground in Caracas and La Guaira report tens of thousands of people still missing beneath collapsed buildings, and survivors across multiple states struggle to find safe drinking water. IRC is concerned about elevated child protection risks given the scale of missing persons, and is prioritizing family tracing and reunification support.
The scale of the response does not meet the scale of humanitarian need. Medical services at health centers and mobile units are overwhelmed, shelters are at full capacity, and water and electricity services remain disrupted across the affected areas. A massive but uncoordinated influx of aid has led to significant food spoilage, with distribution points turning away donations due to oversupply. As search and rescue teams begin to withdraw in the coming days, aid organizations are warning that food needs are expected to resurface and intensify even as the rescue phase winds down. The IRC is scaling its response as field teams report the full scale of destruction becoming clearer with each passing hour.
"What we are seeing in the shelters is heartbreaking; women alone with young children, no documents, no medicine, no idea where their partners or relatives are," said Nicole Kast, IRC Venezuela Country Director. "Children are not sleeping. Every aftershock sends collective panic through the shelters, and the psychological toll of that will last long after the rubble is cleared."
The states of Caracas, La Guaira and Miranda have been declared a disaster zone, where teams are witnessing families lined up under the sun for water and food. IRC partners are also observing a massive flow of people moving toward Caracas, both to assist relief efforts and to search for missing family members. Families are sheltering outdoors rather than risk returning to structurally compromised buildings - a fear made more acute by hundreds of aftershocks since the quake struck, which seismologists warn could continue for three to six months. Schools in affected neighborhoods have been converted into shelters housing entire families who left their homes in seconds with only the clothes on their backs.
A near-total collapse of the national water system across multiple states simultaneously is leaving survivors in shelters, injured people in hospitals, and rescue workers in the field without guaranteed access to safe drinking water. IRC local partners are responding to the emergency through health, protection, water and sanitation services and distributing essential supplies in La Guaira, but report that demand far outstrips what is available. Communications remain cut in several sectors. Families have now gone more than five days without knowing whether their loved ones are alive.
The earthquake struck on a national holiday, when many families were home together. IRC teams in the Altamira and San Bernardino neighborhoods report witnessing families searching for loved ones in the rubble with their bare hands.
IRC teams also report an extraordinary display of solidarity emerging across the city. Delivery motorcyclists who normally carry food orders have organized themselves to transport water and supplies into areas trucks cannot reach. Spontaneous community collection points have appeared across Caracas, with neighbors gathering water, clothing, and medicine to send to the hardest-hit areas.
IRC has been operational in Venezuela since 2021, providing health care, food security, nutrition, clean water, protection services, education, and economic support to some of the country's most vulnerable people. The organization is urgently scaling its earthquake response and calling on donors and the international community to act immediately to ensure life-saving resources reach those who need them.