'With ketchup and cheese': girl tells how she survived 32 hours waiting for rescue after earthquakes in Venezuela

Karina (left) says it will take time to recover, but that her family will move on
BBC
Karina Blanco was about to start the spinning class she teaches when the earth started to shake. The tremors in La Guaira, Venezuela, were getting stronger and stronger, so she grabbed her bag and ran outside with everyone else.
"When I realized the gravity of the situation, I started screaming 'my daughter, my daughter'. I got in the car and drove as fast as I could," said Karina.
Her only daughter, 12-year-old Fabiana, was at home when two strong earthquakes hit Venezuela just seconds apart on June 24. The second earthquake was one of the strongest tremors to hit the country in a century, with a magnitude of 7.5.
When Karina arrived at her building in Caraballeda, in the north of the State of La Guaira, she could hardly believe what she saw. "I could see a building, then an empty space where my building was, and then another building."
Inside the family's apartment, on the first floor of the 10-story building, Fabiana was in her mother's room when she felt the earthquakes. She ran into the kitchen and held on to a counter as the walls around her collapsed. She was thrown to the ground.
"I saw everything shaking, falling, breaking, and then the walls cracked. The wall that separated my apartment from that of a friend collapsed. At that moment, I thought: 'I'm going to die. I'm not going to survive this. Nobody is going to rescue me,'" said Fabiana.
32 hours
From then on, 32 excruciating hours began.
Outside the building that collapsed, Karina saw half of her daughter's bed in the middle of the rubble.
"I ran from one side of the complex to the other shouting 'She's dead. My daughter is dead'. I didn't know what to do," said Karina.
Under the rubble of the building, everything was silent for Fabiana. She was lying on her back, trapped by rubble on all sides, with the ceiling almost touching her face.
"I'm someone who gets very anxious and claustrophobic. But I don't know why, a strange calm came over me. Maybe my mind was in shock," she said.
Shortly later, a nurse who worked as a caregiver for the upstairs neighbors started calling to see if anyone could hear her. Fabiana responded.
"She told me to stay calm and that everything would be fine," Fabiana said.
Six hours after the earthquake, around midnight, the nurse was rescued. She told the volunteers who pulled her out that a girl named Fabiana was alive inside.
"I had already given myself to God asking for strength to start a new life without Fabiana. And then someone told me: 'Your daughter is alive,'" said Karina.
She ran back to the building screaming, pushing her way through the rubble and calling out her daughter's name.
Amidst the rubble, Fabiana couldn't hear anything.
"For some reason, I I had hope and faith," she said. "One of my legs was bent in a painful position, and I moved some rubble to get it straight. While I was doing that, I scratched and cut myself, but I found a bottle of ketchup and some grated cheese. That's what kept me conscious."
At dawn, a group of Venezuelan firefighters arrived at the building. They entered the rubble and called for Fabiana, but heard no response.
It was one of many moments in which Karina wavered between hope and despair.
"They told me nothing could be done and left. I had the gut-wrenching feeling that perhaps she had suffocated to death or suffered a heart attack. Then a volunteer came to me and asked what was happening. He - Viktor - was my hero," she said.
Under the rubble, Fabiana found her cell phone. There was no signal as mobile phone networks had been disrupted, but she decided to record a video of herself. He thought that, eventually, he would be able to send it to his mother or someone who could help her.
"Apartment - Palácio Ritamar. There was a tremor and a lot of debris fell. There is no light. There is no one to rescue us. I'm alone. Many neighbors are trapped in the rubble. We need your help," says Fabiana in the video.
Meanwhile, Viktor climbed through the rubble and started calling for Fabiana. This time she heard him and responded. He told Karina this.
"I turned to everyone and shouted, 'My daughter is alive,'" said Karina. "People started arriving in droves, they started bringing tools. But the firefighters who were there said it was impossible to reach her and left."
A few hours later, another group of firefighters arrived. They assured that they would rescue Fabiana. But they were also unable to reach her.
Meanwhile, Viktor - the volunteer - kept returning to the place where he could speak to Fabiana to reassure her.
The firefighters called a rescue team from Caracas, but when they arrived it was already dark.
Karina ran looking for flashlights and she begged people to help. Seven motorcycles and some cars pointed their headlights at the collapsed building.
Little by little, they removed the rubble, and finally made an opening big enough to see Fabiana.
The video of that moment - of a smiling Fabiana looking through the opening - went viral in Venezuela.
"After so many hours confined, I was filled with joy when I saw them. I realized I was going to be rescued," said Fabiana.
At around 2am local time on Friday - 32 hours after the earthquakes - they managed to dig a tunnel wide enough to rescue Fabiana. She climbed out of the rubble with the support of rescuers and collapsed into her mother's arms.
"When I came out, I saw my family, I saw the building completely destroyed, and it felt like it wasn't real, like it was a TV series," she said. Fabiana.
Karina says that of the nearly 50 people who lived in her building, only three were rescued alive.
As of Sunday, 3,342 people had been confirmed dead in the earthquakes, with tens of thousands still missing.
Apart from a fracture in her left foot and some scratches and bruises, Fabiana suffered no other injuries.
She now lives with her grandmother.
"At first I was afraid of leaving lying down, especially on my back, because it reminded me of the time I spent in the rubble," she said.
In the streets just outside the house where they currently live, in La Guaira, there are many collapsed buildings.
"There is a great sadness outside this house. I feel a lot of pain when I think about my neighbors and friends. It will take us some time to recover. But we'll move on," said Karina. "What more could a mother want? My daughter is alive."
Additional reporting by Aakriti Thapar, Yesman Utrera, Maria Ines Calderon, Sanjay Ganguly

Source: G1