In Caracas the night passed between phone calls, messages and fear. Arturo Guzzo, 65 years old, a restaurateur originally from San Pietro in Amantea, in the province of Cosenza, told Republic the hours following the two violent earthquakes that hit Venezuela.
When it’s four in the morning in the Venezuelan capital, Guzzo already knows he won’t be able to sleep. For hours he has been responding to messages from friends and relatives, reassuring those who contact him from Italy and trying to reconstruct the situation through the people he knows.
“No one missing from our circle”
“For the moment, fortunately, we have no particularly serious news: there are no missing people or damage to the houses in our circle”, explained the Calabrian restaurateur.
A few hours earlier, around six in the afternoon, Venezuela had been hit by two very strong tremors: one of magnitude 7.1 and a second, even more intense, of magnitude 7.5. A double earthquake that put the country in great difficulty and fueled concern even among the Italian communities present in the area.
“It’s a disaster in the historic area”
Guzzo describes a particularly difficult situation in the historic part of the city. “In the historic area of the city it is a disaster, hell,” he further told Republic.
According to the restaurateur originally from Cosentino, the condition of many buildings would also have a bearing on the effects of the earthquake. “Many buildings were built without respecting anti-seismic regulations,” he added.