New Delhi, July 7 -- When the high-rise where Noel Marquez lived with his family crashed to the ground and burst into flames in Venezuela's twin earthquakes, Marquez, who happened to be at his girlfriend's apartment, raced home and called out for his mother, grandparents and siblings. Only his 17-year-old brother, his legs pinned under columns that required heavy machinery to lift, responded.

Marquez and his father, who also survived, spoke through layers of concrete, hearing Leonel suffer, shout for help and inhale suffocating smoke as he waited for a crane to remove the columns crushing him. But it never came. After several hours, Leonel's cries gave way to silence, Marquez said.

But even that, terrible as it was, was not what disturb...