Venezuelans search more earthquake ruins as aftershock rattles rescuers in disaster zone

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — With the window for finding survivors shrinking fast, Venezuelans combed Monday through more ruins of buildings toppled by last week’s powerful back-to-back earthquakes, and a 4.6 magnitude aftershock rumbled through the disaster zone in the northern state of La Guaira.

Relief organizations say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster is the most crucial time period for rescues, though survival can be extended if people have access to food and water. Five days after the twin quakes struck northern Venezuela, attention turned to the humanitarian crisis that was taking shape in devastated regions.

The death toll stood at more than 1,700 people, according to the government.

Major questions loomed about whether the cash-strapped government under acting President Delcy Rodríguez — who came to power in January after the Trump administration seized former President Nicolás Maduro — will be able to coordinate the effort needed to care for thousands of people who have been left homeless.

Facing criticism that authorities have done too little, too slowly, the government has promoted its rescue efforts on social and state-run media. On Monday, it shared footage of Rodríguez inspecting a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in the hard-hit northern town of Catia La Mar and survivors being lifted out of the ruins to applause.

But such bright spots are rare at the quake's epicenter, where families keep vigil at search sites.

“We have to stay strong, even without food, without sleep,” said Ana Rada, watching as civil defense workers looked for her brother. “Until I see the body, I still have hope.”

Following a weekend of smaller aftershocks, Monday's temblor struck near the epicenter of last week's quakes — 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Caraballeda on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast — and measured 4.6 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey. Colombia’s geological survey put the magnitude at 5.1.

Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said there were no immediate reports of additional damage, but the aftershock sent residents in the capital of Caracas screaming into the streets.

“Here we are again, back in the street. I don’t know when we’ll have a moment of true peace,” said Concepción Hernández, 51, who evacuated her apartment building in the Chacao municipality of Caracas.

The Caracas Metro said it would temporarily suspend service Monday to inspect infrastructure following the aftershock.

The disaster has raised expectations for the Trump administration, considering its takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry earlier this year.

In a briefing with reporters, a senior State Department official said 300 first responders sent from the U.S. are working on the ground — alongside dozens of other international rescue teams — and two dozen C-17 military transport planes arrive every day with supplies. Financial support from the U.S. now exceeds $300 million.

The American military is also assisting with some repairs, including damage to the port in La Guaira to enable the arrival of more relief supplies by sea. Another team is helping to manage air traffic after the quakes destroyed part of the control tower at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

It seemed unlikely, however, that the Trump administration would grant temporary legal protections to Venezuelans as previous administrations have done for people from disaster-stricken countries already in the U.S. Such action was taken after earthquakes in 2010 in Haiti and 2001 in El Salvador.

Venezuelans have been a major focus of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with officials revoking temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and stepping up deportation flights.

Among the rescuers digging through the rubble Monday in La Guaira was miner Jean Sosa, who said he was deported from the U.S. in January over a missed immigration court hearing and returned to Caracas last month, dazed by an odyssey that he said began in shackles at an Arizona immigration detention center. The journey involved traveling by bus through five countries after immigration agents left him in southern Mexico without his passport, phone or wallet.

Since arriving Wednesday in La Guaira to visit family and friends, Sosa has raced to pull people from the rubble in the absence of national rescue teams.

“I’m not involved in politics, but I believe many people could have been saved if there had been equipment and support from top authorities from the very beginning,” he told The Associated Press, wearing a helmet and a black T-shirt splotched with dust in the port city where he said he had already rescued 20 people alive.

Those rescues heartened him, he said, and gave him hope for more despite the lack of supplies. “We’re working without gloves, without equipment, borrowing supplies, improvising bandages and whatever else we can.”

The full scale of the damage remained unclear. Jorge Rodríguez, who is the brother of the acting president, said that as of Monday, a total of 15,866 people had been affected, while the number of damaged or collapsed buildings had reached 855.

A preliminary assessment by NASA estimated that the earthquake damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings. The assessment relied on radar imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites, which can detect changes to infrastructure.

The United Nations has said that up to 6.8 million of Venezuela’s nearly 30 million residents may be affected, which could mean being displaced or losing access to essential services such as electricity and water.

Because of the chaos and poor cellphone service, many Venezuelans have turned to non-governmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. More than 50,000 people were reported missing on one such database, though it is unclear how many have been found.

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.

Volunteer Jean Sosa, who joined rescue teams searching for earthquake survivors, explains what he saw after going under the rubble of a building where rescuers are trying to reach trapped people in La Guaira, Venezuela, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents and rescuers searching for survivors run as an aftershock shakes the area five days after back-to-back earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents watch rescuers' efforts to reach survivors beneath the rubble of a building that collapsed in the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, early Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Rescue workers search through the rubble of a building that collapsed when earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A rescuer carries a girl pulled from the rubble four days after twin earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)

Health workers ride in a truck on their way to join earthquake relief efforts in La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Mexican Army rescue workers search for people trapped in collapsed buildings after earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A boy sleeps outside earthquake-damaged homes in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Summer camp and other outdoor activities were canceled or delayed Monday as a heat wave held its grip on the Midwest and spread eastward. Communities opened cooling centers and urged people to take it easy and stay hydrated.

“Overall, we’re looking at just a really hot and humid pattern. It’s going to be with us through most of the week," Andrew Ansorge, a meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, said of the first prolonged period of heat this summer.

Much of Iowa and big chunks of the Midwest were under an extreme heat warning through at least Tuesday. Temperatures were forecast to reach the 90s, with heat index values, or “feels-like” temperatures, expected to top 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) in the region, Ansorge said.

Visiting Des Moines with family, Rachel Washburn searched for things to do with kids during a heat wave. They landed at a water sprayground before lunch, where her children played tag in the cool water to escape a heat index forecast to reach 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).

“My kids were quite shocked at the heat and humidity,” said Washburn of her seven children ages 18 months to 17 who are used to more temperate weather in Bemidji, Minnesota. “We were hoping for some good weather, but we'll make do.”

Some of the worst conditions are expected by Thursday and Friday as the heat moves through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast, with the potential for some record-high temperatures, said Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

On Monday morning, Tom and Cindy Youngblood walked around an outdoor sculpture park in Des Moines, enjoying brief moments of shade and a helpful breeze. The couple, both 67 and from Rogers, Arkansas, returned from a camping trip in Wisconsin and chose a hotel over their camper van Sunday.

“We did not want to camp last night because we knew it would be too hot,” Cindy Youngblood said.

Kleebauer said one of the center’s biggest recommendations is to stay hydrated and have access shady areas and air conditioning.

“It just so happens to be coinciding with a time frame where a lot of people are away and a lot of people are going away for vacation” during the Fourth of July holiday week, he said.

Extreme heat has also taken its toll in Europe, where temperature records were set and many heat-related deaths were reported in France.

People can be caught off guard by the first heat wave of the year, said Dr. Roy Elrod, chief of staff at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital.

“You’re happy winter’s gone, you’re ready to enjoy the summer, you’ve just been aching for it,” Elrod said. “And so, I think we slip into kind of a position where we think it’s got to be OK.”

But heat-related injuries can happen in a matter of minutes, especially to those who don’t prepare for the weather by hydrating, wearing light clothing, avoiding the hottest times of the day and minimizing exposure to the sun, he said.

“We’re just not always prepared for it and it just takes an incident that rattles you and shakes you up that you understand that it can get serious very quick,” he said.

In the Midwest, some camp programs on Monday rearranged their schedules. Other outdoor activities, like a farmers market in Michigan and a drive-in theater in Minnesota, were canceled on Monday because of the heat.

In Flint, Michigan, the city activated four cooling centers through Wednesday, with the potential to extend operations if the heat persists.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it was closing 23 buildings to the public starting Tuesday, allowing only limited access to 11 others. It was relocating some summer classes after a broken water line at its cooling plant earlier this month severely reduced the ability to provide air conditioning across campus.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Haya Panjwani in Washington, D.C., contributed.

Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)

Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)

Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)

FILE - A Japan soccer fan wipes his brow while standing in the heat in downtown Dallas, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)