Speak­ing in a hushed voice, Rosa López re­called how she had to side­step the rows of bod­ies ly­ing un­der a harsh sun as she helped her daugh­ter search for her miss­ing hus­band. Even her years work­ing as a nurse did not pre­pare her for the sight of the dozens of dead wrapped in sheets or blan­kets.

“We saw a lot of bod­ies that had not yet been iden­ti­fied,” López said.

The rush is on across La Guaira, the state on Venezuela’s north­ern coast hard­est hit by the pow­er­ful back-to-back June 24 earth­quakes, to iden­ti­fy loved ones be­fore it’s too late. With at least 2,295 peo­ple killed, Venezuela is over­whelmed with bod­ies that of­fi­cials are strug­gling to col­lect, iden­ti­fy and pre­serve for loved ones to claim. Thou­sands are still miss­ing.