Translated from the original Spanish field notes by Jesús Valdez.
I planned the day around specific damage assessments at hotels near Maiquetía Airport. For that work, engineer Estephania Batoni invited me to carry out a damage assessment at the Eurobuilding hotel near the airport, the same hotel where the two Mexican rescue groups had stayed.
When we arrived, we were received by a representative of the Eurobuilding hotel chain, who gave us access and explained how the building had been constructed and how old it was. We were also joined by an engineer who owns a construction company in Caracas and would also provide his opinion.
As we carried out the inspection, I explained to engineer Estephania how to complete the assessment form I had brought to the site. In general terms, we reviewed the criteria and she began filling out the form.
In reality, there are two hotel room modules. The first is a five-story building that did not appear to have much damage, but it has a feature that would be invisible to a non-expert: the lower levels are concrete structure, while the upper two levels are steel structure. We did not observe catastrophic damage, only some façade detachments.
The second module was built with monolithic concrete. All of the room walls were solid, which gave the system significant strength.
Both buildings received green markings. They are habitable.
After that, we went to another hotel located in the area affected by collapses. What was intended to be a 12-story Hyatt hotel close to opening was now a fragile concrete structure with several fractured columns inside, visible from the outside, and many fractured beam-column joints. We immediately marked the building red: uninhabitable.
However, the owners, who were present, insisted that the contractor tell them whether he could repair it. What was negatively shocking was the contractor’s response. His words were, “Yes, I can repair it.” Based on assessment techniques and on the experience from Mexico, those buildings are marked red for demolition.
Estephania agreed with my criteria and explained that there is no construction oversight by the authorities. Because of that, everyone wants to act quickly so that, by the time anyone tries to put things in order, these hotel owners will already have it “repaired,” as if nothing might happen in the future.
After that, we went to a point where the BRIC USAR group had been searching for people. We had lost a great deal of time during the review and the discussion with the contractor, so night was already approaching. When we arrived at the collapse site, it had been determined that there was no possibility of life, and the Cancún USAR group had withdrawn.
From that point, the Cancún group would begin its demobilization protocols to return to Mexico, given the amount of time that had already passed since the earthquake.
During this visit to La Guaira, we saw that the buildings observed in previous days had deteriorated further and were leaning more. The buildings from a government housing program were especially striking. Today, those beneficiaries are, sadly, disaster victims.
That is how I closed my sixth day.
