Authorities in Venezuela said yesterday they fear the death toll from the devastating floods and mudslides could reach 25,000.
"The estimate is based on the magnitude of the damage," said Civil Defence agency chief Mr Angel Rangel.
"Taking into account the population density of affected areas, I believe we could be talking about 15,000, 20,000, 25,000 people who are beneath the rubble.
"There are areas covered in as much as seven meters of earth. We will never know exactly how many people died there."
The last official death toll released over the weekend showed 580 people dead, thousands missing and 20,000 injured.
Martial law has been imposed in Vargas state, west of Caracas, the area most affected by the floods. Thousands of stranded inhabitants still struggled to leave Vargas by air and sea yesterday.
The drastic measure was approved by the President, Mr Hugo Chavez, as looters preyed on abandoned homes and businesses.
However, army troops acknowledged they had supervised the "orderly" looting of giant containers which broke open due to rain pressure, allowing flood victims to stock up on food and clothes.
The floods are the worst natural disaster to hit the country since the earthquake in 1812 which killed 40,000 people. "We should support the government at this time and forget political differences," said Archbishop Roberto Luckert, anxious to end a growing church-state rift over the approval of a new constitution last week. "Nature acts on its own laws and this was not a challenge to Chavez," Archbishop Luckert added, after Archbishop Ignacio Velasco of Caracas suggested the rains were divine retribution for Mr Chavez's radical overhaul of state institutions.
Some 26 churches were reported to have been swept away by the floods.
"It would be some wrath of God that took out its punishment on the poor," the Foreign Minister, Mr Jose Vicente Rangel, responded while praising dozens of parishes which opened their doors to the victims.
The short-term rescue effort is expected to take at least two weeks more, with 350,000 homeless.
Local authorities in Vargas state requested 10,000 body bags, a sign that most of the victims have yet to be located.
Observers estimated it would take several years to restore roads and buildings in the area.
Mr Chavez announced an ambitious plan to relocate thousands of affected families outside Caracas, on land suitable for farming, where they would receive homes and credits for agricultural work.
Many of the victims fled the countryside in the past decade, where low crop prices forced them to seek work in Caracas, setting up precarious homes on isolated hillsides and river banks. The international airport in Caracas has been converted into an army hospital and an emergency refugee centre, while 600 tourists were evacuated from the Sheraton hotel, which then opened its doors to flood victims.