For those trapped in rub­ble af­ter an earth­quake, sur­vival de­pends on many fac­tors, in­clud­ing weath­er and ac­cess to wa­ter and air.

If their in­juries aren’t too se­vere, vic­tims can sur­vive for a week or more, as­sum­ing the weath­er isn’t too hot or cold, ex­perts say.

In Venezuela, res­cue teams have been rac­ing against the clock to pull sur­vivors from the rub­ble af­ter two pow­er­ful earth­quakes shook the north­ern state of La Guaira last Wednes­day. More than 770 build­ings were to­tal­ly or par­tial­ly col­lapsed from the earth­quakes, and af­ter­shocks con­tin­ued to shake the re­gion.