“You would think that two weeks after, all the dead people would have been found, but it’s actually when things get really bad,” Jerusalem Post award-winning photojournalist Chen G. Schimmel reflected after returning from Venezuela.
Schimmel traveled to the South American country two weeks after two large strike-slip earthquakes hit on June 24. While she missed the immediate aftermath, Schimmel said the devastation she encountered two weeks later “had its own weight.”
Schimmel arrived in Caracas at night after two days of travel, before heading to the state of La Guaira in the morning, which was at the epicenter of the quake.
“Caracas was not that badly affected, but when we approached La Guaira we started to see the destruction. Every single building was reduced to rubble, piles and piles of rubble, tens of meters high. You could see little dots of people on top of them just kind of hacking away at the rubble with quite literally hammers and spades and shovels,” she said.
“As we got nearer, we could see they were not government officials or people for whom this is their skillset. It was literally kids who just got out of the army or just finished school, some wearing helmets, some not, just hacking away at collapsed roofs and trying to find the bodies of their loved ones,” she continued.
In fact, Schimmel said she was shocked by the lack of government help and how much the civilians themselves had to take the brunt and initiative for the rescue efforts.
Two weeks after the earthquake, no one was likely to be pulled out alive. But still, Schimmel said the people she spoke to were filled with hope that some people survived: “I have a feeling that my mum is still alive,” “I have a feeling that my child is still alive,” they told her.
Schimmel was struck by the sheer enormity of the devastation.
“Because of the structure of the buildings, when they collapsed, they collapsed in a pancake effect. So you could see from the sides of all the houses blood oozing from the cracks because people are buried under there and it is virtually impossible to get them out,” she said.
But once she arrived in La Guaira, Schimmel’s focus as a photojournalist changed.
“I went in not knowing what to expect. And then I realized I was not there to photograph bodies being dragged out or people being rescued; I was too late for that. I was there to photograph the aftermath, and what happens after a people and a country have been shaken so badly: What do they do as a response? So I documented the civilians, and I also documented the aid – mainly that from Israel’s side.”
Schimmel followed the IDF, ZAKA, and IsraAID (which has announced it will be settling in Venezuela for the next year).
IsraAID, for example, was helping with water filters and playing with children in the refugee camps. ZAKA, which is normally focused on ensuring every Jewish body receives a proper burial, was instead looking for all Venezuelan citizens, Jew or non-Jew.
“That was pretty amazing, and it goes to show how special we are as a people,” Schimmel mused. “I don’t think the world has seen that enough, so for me it was extremely important to document that.”
After a day and a half in La Guaira, Schimmel headed to meet the Jewish community and document their experience.
One subject was the house of an elderly Jewish woman that had virtually all been destroyed. The woman had been sitting in her kitchen at the time of the quake, but had survived.
While there, Schimmel said she truly grasped the terror of what people must have experienced.
“Someone told me: ‘You don’t know what to think. You think your life is ending and you don’t know if the ground is going to open up beneath you or if the ceiling is going to collapse on top of you,’” she said.
She also met a Holocaust survivor who was born in Austria, moved to Switzerland, then met her husband and moved to Venezuela. At almost 100, the earthquake marked just one more thing the lady has survived in her storied lifetime.
Schimmel also spoke of the beauty of the Jewish center of Venezuela – Hebraica – in Caracas. Some of the estimated 5,000-strong Jewish community had sought refuge there, and the community rallied together to support one another. The synagogue sustained some damage, and the main focus is now getting it ready for the upcoming High Holy Days.
While she was only on the ground in Venezuela for two days, Schimmel saw the country from many angles: A country struggling in the aftermath of a devastating natural disaster with few resources and significant losses. But she also saw a country with surprising beauty and warmth – something she was not prepared for.
“Venezuela has been through so much, long before the earthquake. And yet there was still this extraordinary warmth everywhere I went. I think sometimes, when we photograph disaster, it is easy to only show what has been destroyed. But there is another part of the story too … what remains, and what people choose to do with it.”■