World Bank estimates Venezuela earthquakes caused $19.6bn in damage

Report says 47 percent of physical damage from pair of earthquakes impacted residential buildings.

The World Bank has said that the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela in late June caused an estimated $19.6bn in physical damage, underscoring the country’s challenging path to recovery.

In a statement on Thursday, the World Bank said 47 percent of the damage occurred to residential buildings, while 27 percent occurred to infrastructure and 26 percent to non-residential buildings.

“The earthquakes have disrupted lives, damaged critical infrastructure, and created new challenges for Venezuela’s recovery,” Susana Cordeiro Guerra, the World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement. “Recovering effectively begins with reliable evidence.”

Government authorities have estimated that the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 killed at least 5,000 people and injured nearly 17,000. An additional 18,000 remain homeless, as the country struggles to recover from the destruction amid persistent economic hardship.

Even before the disaster, the World Bank estimated that 76 percent of people in Venezuela, suffering from years of economic mismanagement and crushing US sanctions, were living in poverty.

“Without timely additional investment, the negative impact on productive capacity and living standards will slow the path to recovery,” said Cordeiro Guerra.

The World Bank says its estimate is meant to provide the Venezuelan government and those hoping to assist with recovery efforts with data on the scale of the challenges ahead.

The report, conducted using Global Rapid Damage Estimation (GRADE), says the areas of La Guaira state and Distrito Capital were most severely impacted. The estimate relies on local seismic data, remote-based earthquake modelling, satellite imagery, and damage reports from government and humanitarian groups.

While countries around the world have pledged support for Venezuela, it remains unclear where the funds for recovery might come from.

The United States, which has exercised substantial control over Venezuelan affairs since abducting the country’s former leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a military raid in January, announced on Thursday that it would give more than $200m to the Red Cross to assist people impacted by conflict and natural disasters.

“Today’s contributions support organisations that respond quickly when disasters strike, provide unparalleled access to people in need in conflict settings, and leverage preexisting worldwide disaster and humanitarian response infrastructure,” the diplomatic mission said in a statement.

Those funds do not appear to be targeted specifically at Venezuela.