The death toll in Venezuela has risen to 3,500 Stories About Earthquakes

Experts are warning of a looming health crisis, with thousands of people sleeping in overcrowded makeshift shelters.

More than 3,500 people have died after two earthquakes hit Venezuela last week, with nearly 18,000 people homeless.

The death toll from the two earthquakes in Venezuela has now reached 3,535, while lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez said on Monday that the latest showed 16,740 people injured and 17,854 left homeless. About 12,800 people were living in 80 camps across Caracas and La Guaira, the coastal areas hardest hit by the earthquake.

In La Guaira on Monday, witnesses told the Reuters news agency that they saw trucks and law enforcement personnel carrying coffins as machines dug ditches in an open area marked with white crosses as officials buried bodies.

The June 24 earthquakes, which measured 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, struck within seconds of Caracas and La Guaira.

About 60,000 houses were damaged or destroyed.

Experts have also warned about a health problems are increasing while thousands of Venezuelans are sleeping in overcrowded makeshift shelters or outdoors without clean water. Thousands of people have chronic injuries and infectious diseases, while the country’s medical institutions are struggling to cope.

“The problem that we foresee is very close to the disease that the patients who have been exposed to this tragedy for a long time can bring,” said Eugenio Cova, the director of the Jose Gregorio Hernandez Hospital in Caracas.

“We have already gone through a period of difficult problems, which will continue to happen, but now, it is difficult with diseases,” said Cova.

Health reports are already on the rise.

“There are many reports among people here of diarrhea and other illnesses,” said Al Jazeera reporter Teresa Bo, reporting last week from the shelter in La Guaira.

“They are asking, for example, for portable toilets, and for the government to try to rehabilitate these places to prevent overcrowding and the spread of disease,” said Bo.

Disappointed about Government rescue and relief efforts have made it possible for everyday citizens to work to find survivors and distribute aid.

Carolina Jimenez, president of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a research and advocacy group, told Al Jazeera that the results are fueling anger at the government.

“In any government in any country, the first responder should be the government,” he said last week. “In Venezuela, the government has been the last to respond.”

In areas like Catia la Mar, north of Caracas, government officials have not come or are missing.

“(The) response has come from citizens, government agencies, humanitarian workers, volunteers – but not the government,” Jimenez said.