Twelve-year-old Fabiana ran into her family's kitchen, feeling the floor tremble beneath her—and suddenly, she was on her back, with the ceiling just above her face. Fabiana would spend the next 32 hours trapped beneath the ruins of her family's 10-story apartment in Caraballeda, Venezuela, eating ketchup and grated cheese, after two powerful earthquakes—one a 7.5 magnitude—hit within seconds on June 24. Outside, Fabiana's mother, Karina Blanco, was sure her only daughter was dead. "I could see one building, then a gap where my building stood, and then another building," she tells the BBC. "Then someone told me, 'Your daughter is alive.'"
A nurse rescued from the building about six hours after the collapse reported having spoken to Fabiana, urging her to stay calm. "I'm someone who gets very anxious and claustrophobic," the girl says. "But I don't know why, a strange calm came over me. Maybe my mind was in shock." Over the next day, volunteers and firefighters cycled through failed attempts to reach Fabiana, with one volunteer, Viktor, repeatedly climbing the debris to talk to her. Finally, after nearly 32 hours, rescuers opened a small hole, then a tunnel, allowing Fabiana to emerge with only a fractured foot and minor injuries. Of nearly 50 residents, Blanco says her daughter is one of just three to survive. Nearly 3,000 have been reported dead across the region, with tens of thousands more missing, per France 24.
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