CARACAS.– Without yet recovering from the impact of the earthquakes June 24, tradeespecially small and medium-sized businesses, Caracas and the Guaira struck by tragedy in Venezuelabegan to be reactivated with effort and regret for the numerous victims whose rescue continues despite the lack of assistance from machinery and the rains.
In Los Palos Grandes, a sector of eastern Caracas with the greatest devastation, food stores, hardware stores and even small kiosks are open, and their staff is making efforts to update their inventories and serve the neighbors with whom they share the pain of the losses.
Other large supermarket chains remain closed due to some repairs to their partially damaged structures.
“The popular market that is set up every weekend and sells meals came last Saturday to prepare prepared dishes for refugees located in the Parque del Este and in the plazas, but the fruit vendors also returned,” said Flor Cortéz, a resident of Los Palos Grandes.
Meanwhile, teams of rescuers continued searching among the rubble of the Petunia building, which had a total collapse with a high number of deaths in the area, as in other sectors of Venezuela.
Returning to life in La Guaira
In La Guaira, a coastal coast near Caracas and the center of the greatest catastrophe, the lives of its surviving residents pass in silence but with the conviction of starting over, after the earthquakes of 13 days ago and 27 years after the devastating landslide.
In Caraballeda, only a bakery, a chicken shop and the grocery store, located throughout the area, resumed their activities this Wednesday, it was reported.
The merchant Alexander Pérez, a Colombian who owns the grocery store and who lost another larger store in ground zero of the earthquakes, told an agency that just four days ago he reopened the shutters of his small business that hardly suffered any damage, unlike the other one located in his home.
“The loss was not total but it was about 80% and we donated what was left,” he said.
Pérez, along with his wife and three children, was unharmed by the telluric force but after a few days he had to overcome the fear that it could shake again and “everything would collapse and open to recover income.” as he said, while hundreds of people remain in shelters receiving food.
Commerce without census
The National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomercio), located in Caracas, warned that there is no real census of businesses affected by the earthquakes, but estimates that more than 250 small and medium-sized businesses in La Guaira were affected, either by total or partial loss, according to the report.
Large businesses, such as Farmatodo or McDonald’s, which barely suffered damage, but which have been converted into temporary shelters or even hospitals.
Most of the businesses did not suffer apparent damage, as they are in single-story buildings, but their merchants remain closed,
According to the official balance sheet for July 7, the death toll rose to 3,685 people, while the number of injuries was 16,740. 6,462 people were also rescued and those left homeless rose to 17,907, which is 53 more than Monday.
