Survived the earthquake in Venezuela, moved to Colombia – and were saved again
At the end of June, two brothers from Venezuela went to the sea near their home. 15-year-old Winder wanted to take their 10-year-old brother, Moises, with them, but he was grounded as punishment. "I kept insisting, but my mother just wouldn't give in," he told the British media. Eventually, he and his brother Davy went without him.
At the end of June, two brothers from Venezuela went to the sea near their home. 15-year-old Winder wanted to take their 10-year-old brother, Moises, with them, but he was grounded as punishment. "I kept insisting, but my mother just wouldn't give in," he told the British media. Eventually, he and his brother Davy went without him.
As they made their way back home, two earthquakes struck with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, just 39 seconds apart. The brothers hugged and closed their eyes – and when they opened them again, everything was covered in dust and rubble. Their 12-story apartment building had collapsed completely, trapping their mother, grandmother, and brother under the debris.
Winder and Davy joined the rescue efforts even though they had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat for three days. Their father, David, who was in Colombia at the time, could not find them for three days after returning to Venezuela. When he finally found his sons, they began searching for their family members – a search that lasted almost a month.
Being teenagers, the two brothers had a better ability to squeeze through narrow gaps, crawling between concrete slabs while illuminated only by a flashlight or a mobile phone, so they could guide the rescuers on where to dig. The next day, Davy spotted a piece of fabric among the rubble and recognized it as his grandmother's floral skirt. Shortly thereafter, firefighters confirmed they had found a woman's body.
Winder was the first to identify his mother's body because the bag she used to dye her hair when they went to the sea was still on her head. He approached her as closely as he could and stayed by her side for a few moments. The rescue teams could not immediately recover her body because it was trapped under a concrete slab. When they managed to remove the debris, the body of their little brother was also discovered.
The 10-year-old boy, who as mentioned remained at home due to the grounding he received, held onto his mother until the very last moment for both of them. The father of the family, David, was devastated by the harrowing sight: "When his little head fell into my hands… I broke into pieces," he says.
After laying their family members to rest, the brothers moved to live with their father in a modest working-class neighborhood in the city of Cali, Colombia. But just as they began to plan a life full of hard work and studies, so that their mother would be proud of them – the brothers felt a sensation that was all too familiar to them.
Already on their second day in the country, Colombia was hit by its strongest earthquake of this century – with a magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale. This earthquake claimed the lives of several hundred people across the country, with many others currently still listed as missing. Their place of residence, Cali, was once again among the areas that took the hardest hit.
Davy, who was asleep when the quake began, says he thought he was dreaming because the movement was weak at first. Only when it intensified did he get out of bed and run down the stairs, with his brother doing the same. Outside, they held onto a metal gate and waited until the tremors stopped.
Their father was on the street at the time, and as soon as he felt the tremor, he thought of his sons and ran back to their home. After not finding them, a neighbor told him she saw them leaving, and he continued to search for them in the streets until he found them outside the barbershop where he worked. Both brothers tried to calm him down and said: "Dad, stay calm. We've already been through this before."
