A puppy named Giselle was rescued on Monday after being trapped for five days beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in Venezuela following twin earthquakes last week. The rescue occurred in Caraballeda, a city in the hardest-hit La Guaira state.
Emotional footage captured the moment a search and rescue team from El Salvador freed the dog. Upon her release, Giselle showed affection to her rescuers, wagging her tail and licking them before receiving water and a medical check.
"After 5 hours, we managed to rescue this little dog who responds to the name Giselle," Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele stated on social media while sharing the rescue video. He added that the dog's owner could come forward with proof of ownership.
The earthquakes, registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, struck 39 seconds apart on Wednesday evening, resulting in a significant loss of life and widespread destruction. As of Tuesday, authorities reported at least 1,943 confirmed deaths, with more than 10,571 injured and over 15,000 people displaced. Approximately 50,000 individuals remain unaccounted for.
International rescue teams have converged on Venezuela to aid in the recovery efforts, working alongside some 30,000 Venezuelan emergency workers and 2,700 foreign experts. Among the international responders are elite urban search and rescue teams from the United States, including USA-01, which mobilized from Virginia.
Despite the urgent race against time, some rescue teams have reported progress. The USA-01 team successfully extracted a nine-month-old child and her mother alive from a collapsed building after they had been trapped for nearly three days. However, viral footage also showed Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appearing to reprimand American rescuers.
Initial assessments of the earthquake's impact suggest extensive damage. A preliminary analysis by NASA, using satellite imagery taken before the June 24 earthquakes, indicated that approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed. NASA cautioned that this assessment was preliminary and had not yet been corroborated by on-the-ground evaluations.