A double earthquake strikes Yaracuy and the toll climbs through the week

On June 24 a doublet earthquake struck Yaracuy in northwestern Venezuela. It consisted of a magnitude 7.2 foreshock and a magnitude 7.5 mainshock. Severe damage and collapsed buildings were recorded in Caracas, and casualties were listed as unknown.

The next day the confirmed toll from those quakes was given as 188 people killed, over 1,000 injured, and more than 36,000 believed missing. That was the first numerical toll after the unknown-casualty report. It was attached to the June 24 doublet, not to a new quake.

On June 26 the confirmed toll rose again, to 920 people killed and over 3,360 injured, with 51,000 reported missing. The revision replaced the previous day's figures rather than adding a second disaster. Missing and injured counts moved with the death toll.

No page in the first hours offered a death toll, and later pages did. The honest sequence is unknown, then 188 dead, then 920 dead, with the injured and missing figures that accompanied each update. Caracas damage was noted from the start.

Other collapses that week were not the Venezuelan quake. A warehouse under construction in West Bengal killed five and injured 20. A building in Lagos killed nine and wounded 27. A small plane hit the China Zun skyscraper in Beijing, killing the pilot and injuring 13.

Rescue math in Venezuela was still changing when the week closed on the 920 figure. The magnitudes, 7.2 and 7.5, and the location in Yaracuy, with damage in Caracas, were the physical description. The human toll was whatever the latest confirmed count said, and that count had already been revised twice.