Seventeen-year-old Maria Alejandra Sanz survived nearly 17 hours trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building following twin earthquakes that struck the coastal town of La Guaira in northern Venezuela on June 24. The disaster left more than 4,000 dead and nearly 17,000 injured, according to Venezuelan government officials.

Sanz, a high school student, had been practicing a dance routine with nine close friends in preparation for their upcoming graduation. Four members of their group, including one of her closest friends, Gonzalo Marquez, did not survive the collapse. Sanz was trapped in near darkness, drinking her own urine to stay hydrated, before rescuers eventually reached her.

The quake struck at 6:04 p.m. as the group rehearsed to the song “Dangerous” by Michael Jackson in the ground-floor party hall of their apartment building. Moments before the shaking began, Marquez asked Sanz for water. She went to the third floor to get it but was caught beneath falling debris as the floors below gave way. A door frame pinned her midsection, shielding her from heavier rubble. She managed to slip off her oversized sneakers, believing they might hinder her escape, and used light filtering through the debris as a guide to free herself.

Sanz eventually clawed a hole through the concrete and called for help. Her father, who had been outside during the quake, rushed to rescue her. Following her escape, she learned that five of her friends had survived, but several remained trapped. One, Isa Campos, initially conscious beneath the rubble, died about 24 hours later, reportedly after rescue equipment failed to arrive in time. Her father criticized the delayed arrival of official rescue teams, which he said came two to three days after the quakes.

Sanz and her friends had grown up amid Venezuela’s prolonged economic crisis, political instability, and widespread migration. They had hoped the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces earlier in the year would signal positive change. The group maintained a close bond through dance and shared ambitions, with Sanz recalling her friendship with Marquez as one that grew from mere classmates to inseparable companions.

In the wake of the tragedy, survivors have struggled with grief and trauma, often vacillating between numbness and sorrow. The group’s once-active communications have largely fallen silent. Sanz reflected on her lost friends as “always young,” a sentiment underscoring the abruptness with which the disaster ended their shared futures.