In Venezuela, silence has become a rescue tool

In Venezuela rescue crews now stop almost everything and ask for silence so they can hear anyone still alive underneath the rubble. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports from the port city of La Guaira. DON GONYEA, HOST: We start today's program in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira on the Caribbean coast, which is now at the heart of one of the country's worst natural disasters. The city bore the brunt of Wednesday's brutal double earthquakes, which killed nearly 1,500 people across the capital and surrounding areas in northern Venezuela. Thousands are still unaccounted for. Rescue teams and volunteers continue to search through the rubble, but hopes of finding more survivors are now fading as time passes. NPR's Eyder Peralta is there in La Guaira. Eyder, you've spent the day traveling along this destroyed coastline. What have you seen? EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: I mean, it's just total devastation, Don. I mean, last night, we were here late, until the sundown. And we were in front of a building, and there was just this mad rush to try and find people who were making noise from under rubble. And really, it was an ad hoc job. They were tying pieces of concrete onto cars and just trying to move them with cars. And then every once in a while, they would tell everybody to be quiet. The motorcycles would turn off their engines, and they would all go quiet. And the rescuers would scream, if you're alive, please make some noise. …