The death toll from the twin earthquakes that flattened buildings across northern Venezuela has risen to 589, with nearly 3,000 people injured, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Friday, as rescue teams from around the world raced to reach survivors before the critical window for finding them alive closes. The figure has climbed steeply from the 164 deaths reported a day earlier, and officials cautioned it would rise further still.

A magnitude 7.2 quake struck first on Wednesday evening, followed within seconds by a magnitude 7.5 tremor centered in the same area west of the capital, Caracas — the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in more than a century. The shaking collapsed apartment blocks, buckled roads and sent residents fleeing into the streets across several states.

The coastal state of La Guaira, just north of Caracas, has emerged as the epicenter of the human toll. Authorities reported more than 100 building collapses there and said roughly 70,000 families had been affected, their homes destroyed or rendered unsafe. La Guaira also hosts Simon Bolivar International Airport, Venezuela's main international gateway, which remains closed because of structural damage — complicating the very relief flights the country now depends on.

Rescue workers are operating against the clock. Disaster experts describe the first 72 hours after a quake as a 'golden window,' the period in which people trapped under rubble have the best chance of being pulled out alive. By Friday that window was nearing its end, and crews in the worst-hit neighborhoods were still digging by hand and with sniffer dogs through the concrete remains of homes where families are believed to be buried.

The international response has been unusually broad for a country that has spent years diplomatically isolated. Search-and-rescue teams and humanitarian aid have arrived from Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Cuba, the United States, Turkey, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and China, alongside resources mobilized by the United Nations. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher addressed survivors directly, saying, 'know that we are determined that help gets to you.'

The United States, which does not recognize President Nicolas Maduro's government, nonetheless pledged $150 million in assistance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio promising the American response would be 'big, fast and effective.' The willingness of governments at odds with Caracas to send aid underscores the magnitude of a catastrophe that has overwhelmed local capacity.

Inside the country, the strain on the health system is acute. Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said hospitals were 'full of patients' as the wounded poured in, testing facilities already weakened by years of economic collapse, shortages of supplies and the emigration of medical staff. The government has declared a nationwide state of emergency, suspended school classes and urged residents to stay out of damaged structures amid continuing aftershocks.

Venezuela sits along the boundary where the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates grind past each other, a fault system capable of producing large, shallow quakes. Yet the country had been spared a major urban earthquake in living memory, leaving much of its informally built and aging housing stock untested against violent ground motion — a vulnerability the collapses in Caracas and La Guaira have laid bare.

For now, the priority remains the search. Officials have asked for patience as crews comb the wreckage, and the full scale of the loss will not be known until that work is finished in the hardest-hit districts. With the toll already at 589 and rescuers warning that many remain unaccounted for, Venezuela faces the prospect that its deadliest natural disaster in generations has not yet been fully counted.