Sawt Falasteen - A painful wait by a pile of rubble in quake-hit Venezuela

They called out the missing man's name -- "Jonathan!" -- and his wife, Barbara Palacios, jumped with joy and excitement.

She looked up to the sky and screamed "thank you, Father!"

But hearing her husband and getting him out from under tons of concrete and debris were very different things.

All around this one personal tragedy are the sights and smells of many others from that moment Wednesday evening when the earth abruptly groaned and rumbled with quakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5, in rapid succession. They killed more than 1,400 people and left some 50,000 missing.

As the crews worked, Friday, it had been two days since that display of nature's power. One more day, and it is generally considered that a search for survivors becomes a search for bodies.

Here in La Guaira, which in happier times is a beach resort for people making a day trip from Caracas, the air now stinks of death. Sirens wail as ambulances and rescue vehicles race through the streets.

Palacios said her husband, Jonathan Suarez, a 36- year-old salesman, was inside a shop in a small hotel when the quakes struck.

"It all came crashing down. He tried to get out but did not have a chance," Palacios said with a quivering voice.

Her eyes filled with tears as she tried to keep up hope. "He is alive. He is."

But the clock kept ticking and the rescue crews could no longer hear her husband. Palacios refused to believe he is dead.

- 'Driving by' -

The rescue crews had seemed to take forever to arrive on the scene, as was the case elsewhere in La Guaira.

At first people went at this particular mountain of rubble with their bare hands as they waited for help to arrive.

"They just kept driving by," said Palacios.

So she and relatives of at least five other trapped people stood in the road where rescue teams kept cruising past, and blocked it, demanding attention.

That made civil defense crews, firefighters and some volunteers stop and try to help at this chapter of Venezuela's still unfolding tragedy.

As the work proceeded, Palacios sipped water and watched nervously. A human chain of volunteers handed chunks of building down the line, one after another, as more time passed.

A man named Luis Flores took a bucket full of rock and earth and threw it to the side.

"We are doing this with our bare hands," said the 54-year-old businessman.

"We pulled four people out alive, including a girl. And three dead," said Flores.

A volunteer named Jesus who did not want to give his last name stated the obvious: "the government was not prepared for a disaster like this."

- 'Accept reality' -

Around 5 in the evening a backhoe arrived, finally. In a matter of minutes it dug away what it had taken humans hours to remove, piece by piece.

Palacios did not move. She kept pacing nervously by the spot where her husband's voice was heard.

"I am not leaving until they pull my husband out," she said.

She has no place to go, anyway. Her home was destroyed and she is staying with relatives.

As the sun was about to set, 25 Mexican soldiers with sniffer dogs showed up, one of many foreign crews rushing in to help Venezuela cope.

Two dogs climbed onto the rubble, scurrying up and down, but detected nothing.

Hundreds of people had now gathered to watch the backhoe operate. The soldiers ask people to be quiet, but it was still noisy with all the firetrucks and aid vehicles roaring up and down the road.

One Mexican soldier screamed into the rubble, "Is there anyone there? Yell. Make a noise."

Then three soldiers climbed onto the rubble, in a line, as if in formation, and crouched down to listen.

Six hours had now gone by since Suarez's voice was heard.

Crews worked into the night, and all day Saturday, in vain.

Palacios is in shock, her sister Alix said.

Palacios, she said, "seems unable to accept reality."

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H.Nasr--SF-PST