00:00In Venezuela, reconstruction efforts continue across affected areas after the twin earthquakes of June 24.
00:07Our correspondent, Belén de los Santos, is in one of the impacted buildings in San Bernardino Parish in Caracas, Venezuela,
00:14and will tell us more about how are these works unfolding.
00:18Hello, Belén.
00:22Hello, Lorena. How are you?
00:23Exactly as you were saying, we are in the San Bernardino Parish, one of the most affected sectors of Caracas,
00:30because we are just very near the Avila mountain.
00:34And as you were saying, we are inside one of the affected buildings, particularly the elite building.
00:41And I wanted to show you, because we have been going around the building, talking to the engineer in charge,
00:47talking to the neighbors.
00:49There is work underway.
00:50What you're seeing right now is the walls of one of the hallways.
00:54We are actually right now in the third floor.
00:58And these walls, as you can see, have damage, but this is not structural.
01:03Nothing that you're seeing right now, all of those cracks in the walls, they're not structural damage.
01:09What they are, they are affections, of course, affected elements that need to be repaired.
01:15What you're seeing right now is the stage of one of the apartments.
01:20We can go further inside here.
01:23And you're going to see that the walls that go to the outside are completely open as well.
01:30This is because this is a yellow building in the color code that has been established to determine the amount
01:39of damage that each structure suffered.
01:41This is yellow. That means that it has severe damage to walls, for example, in different elements that need urgent
01:50repair.
01:50But it does not have damage to its main structure.
01:55That means that the building is not compromised.
01:58It cannot collapse.
02:00The walls have been demolished in a controlled way in order to rebuild them once again because they needed to
02:21be not only rebuilt but reinforced.
02:23We are going to see also that there has been specific elements, anti-seismic elements that are being included in
02:32this reconstruction of the walls.
02:34For example, steel rods that are being placed and also an expensive foam.
02:41All the elements that are meant for these walls that suffer damages.
02:45Just so you know, the main damage was to the lower five to six floors of this building.
02:56And an expensive foam is also about to be placed in the affected walls in order to prevent future seismic
03:07events from affecting the walls
03:11as this double earthquakes of June 24th dead.
03:15So we continue to see if you, maybe if you can see over here, I don't know if the camera
03:22will capture it.
03:23But what you see there is an open place where a wall is being rebuilt.
03:29And you have the steel rods.
03:30These steel rods are being placed right now.
03:34They are new and they are part of the anti-seismic elements that are being placed to reinforce these structures
03:42for future events.
03:45So this is a little bit of what you're seeing.
03:48See, there you see again the steel rods and in the place that remain open in the borders of these
03:55walls, an expensive foam will be placed again.
03:59In order to increase the capability of these structures of resisting future seismic events.
04:06Lorena, this is what is happening.
04:08And this is part of the Venezuela Rises Again plan here in Caracas.
04:13Well, and also, I brought this building that you were showing us.
04:20You were also showing us the outside.
04:22I want you to tell our viewers if all the other buildings are also currently under works of reconstruction.
04:32How are these works of reconstruction undergoing on those buildings?
04:36And also, what are the colors of the building?
04:39Are more in yellow, more in red?
04:42How is this process going on in the exact location that you are right now?
04:50Yes, exactly.
04:51So, as you were saying, San Bernardino has been one of the most affected areas.
04:56There have been two buildings that have sadly collapsed to one of the areas most affected by these double earthquakes.
05:03And there are other buildings that, of course, all have been evaluated.
05:08Many in reconstruction as the one that we are in right now, the Elite Tower.
05:13We have also been to the Corazón de Jesús residencies, the Heart of Jesus in Spanish,
05:19also being rebuilt at this moment in a very similar situation than this one.
05:25These are yellow-coated buildings, buildings that have no risk of collapse but need restructuring,
05:33need damages that need to be fixed in order for all the neighbors to come back inside and resume their
05:40daily lives at home.
05:42There are other buildings like that, not only in San Bernardino but also around Caracas.
05:47You know that all of these different stages of the rebuilding of the city are happening at the same time.
05:53You have the inspection crews going around all the affected buildings trying to determine their stage.
05:58You have already the reconstruction crews, for example,
06:01the ones that we were just seeing at place right now here in the Elite Building,
06:05also in other residencies in San Bernardino.
06:08And the buildings that have been labeled red,
06:12those are waiting for, some of them are waiting for more analysis, structural analysis,
06:20because a building that is labeled red doesn't mean that it needs to be demolished as a whole.
06:26It means that it needs to be further analyzed to see if it can be repaired or not.
06:31For now, the main repair works are being done on the yellow buildings
06:37because those are the ones that can be, people can come in and continue living here the sooner.
06:44So the works are focusing on this right now while the inspections continue.
06:49And, of course, we have seen controlled demolitions as well in Caracas.
06:52All of this is happening at the same time.
06:54The goal is for as many people to be able to come back to the residencies as soon as possible.
07:01We will continue following how all these works are done.
07:06And now we're...
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