Grieving children spend three weeks using kitchen knife to dig their late mother out of Venezuela earthquake rubble
Two teenage brothers spent three weeks digging through rubble from the Venezuela earthquake to find their mother’s body.
Winder Delfin, 17, and his brother, Deivi, 15, spent 26 days using a variety of tools, including a kitchen knife, to dig their relatives out of the remains of their apartment building that was destroyed in the June 24 earthquake.
The boys lived with their grandmother Carmen, 69, mother, Yusmani, 35, and brother Moissés, 10, in an apartment on the first floor of a 12-story public housing building in La Guaira, a coastal state among the hardest hit, according to The New York Times.
Winder and Deivi were on their way home from the waterpark when the earthquake struck, and they watched their family home crumble.
They spent the following three weeks digging through the rubble searching for their grandmother, mother and brother, along with the help of their father, Deivid Delfín, 44, and their stepfather, Giovanni Berroterán, 50.
‘I’m no longer a boy,’ Deivi told The New York Times.
They used a shovel, pickaxe, sledgehammer, jackhammer, saw and a kitchen knife to dig through the rubble of their former home.
On the 24th day of their search, Deivi was able to open a hole into the living room and found their brother’s shorts and their mother’s bible.
Winder Delfin (pictured), 17, and his brother, Deivi, 15, spent three weeks digging through rubble from the Venezuela earthquake to find their mother’s body
Venezuela’s government says 856 buildings are damaged, and 190 collapsed completely since since the June 24 earthquakes
A few hours later, the boys discovered their grandmother.
It took another 24 hours of digging to find Yusmani and Moissés, who were located in the kitchen.
Venezuela’s government says 856 buildings are damaged, and 190 collapsed completely since the 7.2 and 7.5 quakes last month. The death toll rose to 5,069 on Friday.
The interim government of President Delcy Rodriguez added in a statement that the number of injured remains unchanged at 16,740.
The brothers, along with their father and stepfather, dug a hole to their family apartment (pictured) and recovered the bodies of their grandmother, mother and younger brother
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around $37 billion
Rodríguez has estimated that the earthquakes left about 18,000 people without a home.
The displaced are now living in schools, sidewalks, parks, plazas and other public spaces.
In La Guaira, survivors have been forced to improvise showers and toilets amid water shortages.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around $37 billion.
