1967 Caracas earthquake
Encyclopedia
The 1967 Caracas earthquake occurred on 29 July 1967 at 20:00 local time, and was centered near the coast about 30 miles west of Caracas
, capital of Venezuela
with a magnitude
of 6.5. When the earth stopped shaking, about 240 inhabitants were dead and hundreds injured and buried in the rubble where homes and offices once stood. Over $100 million property damage was incurred in the Caracas area and about 80,000 persons were left homeless.
Damage was extensive in the Altamira
and Los Palos Grandes sections of Caracas where four major apartment buildings, 10 to 12 stories high, collapsed. Many additional structures were severely damaged and several had to be razed and reconstructed.
Huge sections of walls fell from buildings, flattening cars below and leaving large portions of structures exposed. Rescue workers used cranes and bulldozers to search through the rubble for survivors or victims of the earthquake. A week after the shock, rescue operations continued for persons believed trapped beneath the floors of the coast resort hotel, Mansion Charaima.
Maracay
, about 50 miles west of Caracas, reported five deaths and 100 injuries. Several additional towns reported structural damage.
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, capital of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
with a magnitude
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
of 6.5. When the earth stopped shaking, about 240 inhabitants were dead and hundreds injured and buried in the rubble where homes and offices once stood. Over $100 million property damage was incurred in the Caracas area and about 80,000 persons were left homeless.
Damage was extensive in the Altamira
Altamira (Caracas)
thumb|250px|right|Plaza FranciaAltamira is a neighborhood located in the Chacao municipality of Caracas, Venezuela. It has its own Metro Station, many hotels and restaurants, and is an important business and residential center of the city...
and Los Palos Grandes sections of Caracas where four major apartment buildings, 10 to 12 stories high, collapsed. Many additional structures were severely damaged and several had to be razed and reconstructed.
Huge sections of walls fell from buildings, flattening cars below and leaving large portions of structures exposed. Rescue workers used cranes and bulldozers to search through the rubble for survivors or victims of the earthquake. A week after the shock, rescue operations continued for persons believed trapped beneath the floors of the coast resort hotel, Mansion Charaima.
Maracay
Maracay
Maracay is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of the Girardot Municipality. The population as per the 2001 census was 750,000...
, about 50 miles west of Caracas, reported five deaths and 100 injuries. Several additional towns reported structural damage.