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As we do begin in Venezuela where again that death toll continues to climb. The strongest earthquakes to hit the country in more than a hundred years. Two massive quakes struck less than a minute apart, bringing down entire apartment buildings, damaging the main international airport there and leveling entire neighborhoods. Again, so far 164 confirmed dead, a thousand injured and rescue crews. You can see right now they're on the ground. They are racing against time, searching through those the mountains of concrete, the mountains of debris for any sign of survivors. President Trump did post on Truth Social overnight. The USA stands ready, willing, and able to help. I have instructed all agencies of our
government to get ready to move quickly. We will be there for our new and great friends. Mark Bole joining us from the live desk with the latest on this. And you know, Mark, it took this these two earthquakes less than a minute to change Venezuela forever. Right now, there's reports the scale of this disaster is going to be catastrophic. There is a forecast. The USGS says there could be more than 100,000 deaths. There's about a 35% chance or so. Jan, incredible numbers right here. New video showing some of the devastation behind me. So, we have confirmed at least 200 dead, nearly 1,000 injured after these earthquakes. So, you have the first
major one, then that huge aftershock. We are hearing reports the main airport is damaged and closed and the earthquakes epicenter just west of the capital of Caracus. This map and the damage right here shows what we're talking about. So these are the scenes that will continue to play out for hours this morning as rescue efforts are underway right now as you wake up. The latest numbers here. So you have the 7.5 and then that 7.2 magnitude aftershock. You can basically call these two big earthquakes and they happen just a couple of minutes. one after another. These numbers we've updated since we came on the air about an hour ago. We started the hour at 6:00 Eastern, right around 30. Now it's at
164 deaths, close to 1,000 hurt. The president says he is aware of what's going on and we know this death toll could go up. The USGS reporting this morning, those are the numbers that they have, and this is that sliding scale. This is where we get those numbers from. There is a 30% chance more than 100,000 people could die. We're tracking that for you right now. This morning, the big task though is going to be finding the survivors underneath all of this rubble. We are seeing some stories of success as one person pulled from the rubble right there behind me overnight. And help is on the way, pouring in from around the world. And of course, the United States Secretary Marco Rubio says at the
direction of President Trump, the State Department immediately deploying search and rescue teams and other crews on the way to that region as you wake up. updates to this breaking news for you here at the live desk this morning.
