Woman makes gut-wrenching admission after being pulled from rubble following Venezuela earthquake
Warning: this article contains references to death and natural disasters which some may find distressing.
A series of terrifying earthquakes struck Venezuela, leaving at least 235 people have been killed and 4,300 injured, but one woman who was pulled from the rubble shared a heartbreaking story about what happened.
The quakes measured in at 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, and La Guaira was one of the most heavily impacted areas as the quakes struck within just 39 seconds.
There, emergency workers and volunteers managed to pull Graciela Mora from the rubble of a collapsed building, miraculously alive, to whoops and cheers from the rescue team, relieved to find her alive.
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She told journalists from Associate Press about the terrifying events that led up to her discovery, according to the BBC.
"When the earthquake started, I clung as tightly as I could to the doorframe, so tightly that I broke my finger," she recalled.
Mora sustained several injuries, including her broken finger, but tragically revealed that the friend she was with at the time was killed in the quake.
She was rescued with injuries, including a broken finger, but a friend she was with at the time died.
She told the Associated Press how she held friend's hand while waiting to be rescued, so she didn't die alone.
The woman raised her hand to gesture how she held it out to her friend, as she squinted into the bright sun after spending hours trapped in the dark.
Lying stricken on a stretcher, she told the reporter how she hung onto the doorframe for as long as she could 'until all the floors collapsed, and then I saw her hand like that and grabbed it, so that she could go" she says.
"It hasn't given me a chance to cry, and it still hasn't," she added.
After her miraculous rescue, Mora was taken into an ambulance on a stretcher.
Rescuers are still searching for more than 50,000 missing people following the tragedy, as the numbers keep rising.
More than 250 buildings were destroyed in the natural disaster, according to The Independent.
At least eight hospitals, in addition to the Venezuelan Red Cross and the French embassy were all badly damaged.
Citizens and rescue workers have been teaming up to try and save people trapped in the rubble, using their bare hands and with whatever torches they can find as the power is out in many places,
Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez, has declared a state of emergency after the earthquakes.
The incident also forced the closure of the nation’s main international airport.
Topics: World News, US News
Jen Thomas