
Deivi and Winder Delfín, 15 and 17, survived two devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia, witnessing death and destruction, including the loss of their mother, grandmother, and brother.
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Two earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, causing widespread destruction and loss of life.
The earthquake is haunting me," Deivi Delfín says. The 15-year-old feels like he and his brother, Winder, have been chased by tremors these past few months, having lived through two that struck with devastating effect in Venezuela, only to get caught up in another this week after moving to Colombia. He tells the BBC that he and his brother, 17, no longer felt like children, having witnessed corpses damaged beyond recognition. After their home in La Guaira - the area of Venezuela hardest hit by the twin quakes on 24 June - was reduced to a pile of rubble, killing three family members including their mother, they moved to Cali, Colombia, where their father works, on Friday. Three days later, they felt the ground shake again. Back at the end of June, the two teenagers had gone to the beach on Venezuela's Caribbean coastline. Winder wanted to take their 10-year-old brother Moissés, but he was grounded. "I kept insisting but my mum just wouldn't budge," he says. As they were heading home on the evening of the 24th, earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck just 39 seconds apart. The brothers hugged and shut their eyes. When they reopened them, everything was covered in dust and debris. When they arrived home, they saw the 12-storey apartment building had collapsed, trapping their mother Yusmani, grandmother Carmen and brother under a mountain of concrete. "My world came crashing down," Winder says. The earthquakes killed more than 6,300 people, according to the Venezuelan government. There is still no clear official figure for the number of people missing. Winder and Deivi joined rescue efforts, but for three days had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. Their father, Deivid, who was in Colombia at the time, was unable to find them for three days after returning to Venezuela. When he eventually found his sons, they began a search for their family members that would last nearly a month. Deivid knew that climbing into the rubble would put his sons at risk, but they would not be deterred from searching for their missing family members. As they were still teenagers, they were better able to squeeze through narrow spaces, crawling between concrete slabs lit only by a handheld torch or mobile phone so they could tell rescuers where to dig. "By that point, I didn't feel like a child anymore," Deivi recalls . Gradually, they unearthed fragments of their family life - Moissés's shorts, Yusmani's Bible, and an unfinished shopping list - a sign they were getting closer to what had once been their home. The following day, Deivi spotted a piece of fabric in the rubble and recognised it as his grandmother's floral skirt. Soon after, firefighters confirmed they had found a woman's body. Winder was the first to recognise his mother's body. A plastic bag she had been using to dye her hair when they had left for the beach was still on her head. He got as close to her as he could and stayed with her for a few moments. They still could not immediately recover her body as it had been pinned down by a concrete slab. It was only while they were removing it that they found Moissés. The little boy was still holding onto his mother. At the sight of his son, Deivid collapsed. "When his little head fell into my hands... I broke down," he says. Deivi, who was asleep when the tremor began, says that he thought he was dreaming when the movement was gentle. But when it intensified, he got out of bed and ran downstairs. His brother did the same. Outside, they grabbed hold of a metal gate and waited for the shaking to stop. Their father had been out on the street at the time. As soon as he felt the tremor, he thought of his sons and ran back to the house - but when he arrived, they were nowhere to be seen. A neighbour told him she had seen them leave and he kept searching through the streets until he found them outside the barbershop where he worked. His sons tried to reassure him, saying: "Dad, stay calm. We've been through this before."

Hongkong-Macao ferry Fatshan capsizes off Lantao during Typhoon Rose, feared drowning of large crew including master and senior British officers; 4 survivors, 4 bodies found.
L'Indonesia è stata colpita da due terremoti: uno di magnitudo 7.7 a Flores (almeno 53 morti, 135 feriti) e uno di 6.9 a Sumatra. 6.000 italiani in zona, 700 a Flores, nessuna vittima tra loro. Turisti italiani bloccati ma in salvo.

千葉県で記録的大雨により各地が冠水。14日までに死者5人、心肺停止2人が確認された。佐倉市でタクシー乗客の女性、上志津で路上の高齢男性などが死亡。柏市・千葉市でも心肺停止者が出た。

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia's Choco Department on August 10 has resulted in 281 deaths, 3,971 injuries, and 379 missing persons, with Cali being the hardest hit.

A boat carrying 90 passengers and 5 crew capsized on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Rescue efforts are underway; officials urge against speculating on casualties.

熊本地震後のイオンモール熊本で起きた爆発によりテナント従業員7人が犠牲となった。一度避難した建物への再立ち入りや二次災害防止の判断基準が課題として浮き彫りになり、各社の対応やマニュアルの実効性が問われている。