Authorities in Venezuela are planning to set up temporary housing for families who lost their homes in last month’s devastating earthquake, whose death toll has now reached at least 4,490.
The announcement was made Saturday by Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez, brother of acting President Delcy Rodriguez.
He did not say how many people were still missing, but the United Nations estimated that 50,000 people were still missing.
Rodriguez rejected suggestions that the government would suspend the search for bodies to allay families’ fears that the debris would be cleared indiscriminately.
Venezuela: How powerful were the earthquakes?
On June 24, earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck the capital Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira, leveling entire high-rise apartment blocks.
More than 850 buildings are in ruins or seriously damaged and more than 19,000 people have been forced to live in temporary camps set up in sports stadiums, schools or at intersections or sidewalks.
But schools will especially need to be emptied once the new academic year starts in September, with initial government estimates indicating around 25,000 homes will be needed to house people.
Rodriguez said the government has allocated more than 584,000 square meters of land in La Guaira state for the construction of 40 new homes.
Venezuela: the government is requesting financial resources
However he warned that significant resources would be needed for reconstruction as well as rental assistance and property purchase loans.
To this end, interim President Delsey Rodríguez this week officially requested that the Bank of England release Venezuela’s gold reserves.
“This gold belongs to our people and should be used to serve them,” he said. He also asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release financial resources earmarked for emergency use.
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez