Venezuelan diaspora frantic over family missing, feared dead after quakes

Nilka Simosa Verde, a Venezuelan-American living in Miami Beach, has been hoping and praying to hear from her family since two earthquakes jolted Venezuela’s Caribbean coast Wednesday evening.

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In La Guaira, a coastal state neighboring Caracas where her family lives— and one of the hardest-hit areas of the 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes — there has been little to no signal. Text messages and calls aren’t going through. The government declared the state a disaster zone.

Around 3:30 a.m. Thursday she heard from other family members in Caracas that her 84-year-old father was OK. Her sister and brother-in-law happened to be with him in his home when the earthquakes hit minutes after 6 p.m. Wednesday. That likely saved their lives, as their building collapsed and his didn’t.

But no one has heard from her sister-in-law or the two sons and daughter she lived with in a 12-story apartment building in La Guiara that also collapsed. She posted pictures on social media asking for help finding them.

Thursday morning, Simosa Verde’s father visited the rubble of the building where his grandchildren — 19-year-old Gabriel, 11-year-old Cesar and 9-year-old Amelie — once lived in Los Corales, La Guaira. He feared everyone who was in the building was dead. She said he screamed out their names, screamed for help from rescuers. No one answered.

“My dad told me, ‘Hija, if God was merciful, He took them together.’ Because if He had left one behind, imagine how they would have suffered,” Simosa Verde said, sobbing.

Also, unaccounted for were other distant family members and family of Simosa Verde’s friends.

Models from the U.S. Geological Survey suggest that an earthquake of this magnitude could result in tens of thousands of casualties. Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency late Wednesday.

By Thursday afternoon, the death toll was over 180 with over 1,500 people injured, Venezuelan officials said. As many as 250 buildings have collapsed or suffered structural damage, the government said.

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Social media and WhatsApp groups were filled with people trying to find their loved ones. Various websites were launched to report missing people following the quakes, including Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela (Venezuela Earthquake Missing) where tens of thousands have been reported missing, and hundreds had been located.

Among the Venezuelans in the U.S. hoping to hear word from their loved ones is Denys Silva, who left her apartment in the Caraballeda neighborhood of La Guaira years ago. Her sister, Laura Silva, and brother-in-law, Onai Quiñones, a well-known Venezuelan artist, moved into that apartment, seeking closer ties to Venezuela’s arts scene.

When the earthquake struck, Laura was outside walking the couple’s dog. Onai was inside the apartment building, said Silva.

Minutes later, the building collapsed.

From afar, Silva, who lives in Iowa, has watched her sister’s anguish deepen with no word from her husband. She remains near the rubble, hoping Onai may still be alive.

“She is desperate,” Silva said. “She just wants someone to get there and help her husband.”

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María Eugenia Pardo, a resident of Wellington in Palm Beach County, said she is devastated by the tragedy and distressed because her cousin, his wife, their two daughters and his mother-in-law are missing in La Guaira.

“I am paralyzed for the first time in my life. I don’t see how to help. We also don’t know how to get supplies to Venezuela. Organizing a fundraising drive is easy, but the logistics are not. Maiquetía International Airport has been destroyed,” Pardo said, referring to the main airport serving Caracas.

She said she feels helpless in the face of the tragedy’s magnitude.

“Seeing the buildings that were part of my family’s daily life destroyed—there are no words to describe it. Everywhere we have family, there is destruction,” she said, her voice breaking.

Lismer Meléndez, who lives in Miami, said she couldn’t reach her family for more than an hour Wednesday evening due to communications system outages.

“Even from afar, you feel so much anguish without knowing what to do to help them. It’s like having your heart split in two,” she said.

Meléndez has relatives in Maracay, in the state of Aragua in central Venezuela. They told her they were terrified, but safe. Several areas of Aragua suffered extensive structural damage, especially Turmero and Cagua.

“I was in great anguish trying to reach them, and after almost an hour I finally did. It was very hard,” she said.

Properties lost

For many Venezuelans living abroad, the disaster has shattered not only buildings but also lifelong connections to the places they once called home.

Lisbeth De Cambra, 59, left her beachfront apartment in the Tanaguarena neighborhood of La Guaira almost a decade ago, but she never lost her connection to the building. Over the years, she and a close-knit group of friends purchased apartments there, creating a community even after many moved away.

Several of those friends were living in the building when the earthquake struck, she said.

“We didn’t just lose a piece of property; something was torn away from you—something that had, in a way, grown along with you,” said De Cambra, a former Venezuelan journalist who now lives in Orlando. “You don’t know who is vulnerable right now, and there is nothing you can do. It’s like living in a horror movie.”

From Orlando, she has spent hours trying to reach friends and former neighbors while following reports from the disaster zone.

The uncertainty, she said, has been one of the most painful parts of the tragedy, as families inside and outside Venezuela wait for news about those who may still be trapped beneath the rubble.

Simosa Verde, the Miami Beach resident, called the quakes the latest round of tragedy for Venezuelans.

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“This is just another misfortune of the many we’ve lived,” she said.

This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 4:19 PM.