JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The death toll in Venezuela is climbing after two powerful earthquakes hit the country on Wednesday. Thousands more people are believed to be trapped under the rubble. And on Thursday, the Trump administration announced what appears to be its strongest disaster response since it dismantled USAID last year. NPR global health correspondent Fatma Tanis joins us to talk about what that will look like. Hi there.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Hi.
SUMMERS: So, Fatma, what is the administration's plan to help?
TANIS: So Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised a big, fast and effective response from the U.S. Yesterday, the State Department announced a $150 million commitment to faith-based aid groups and United Nations agencies for the response. The U.S. is also deploying a disaster assistance team and two search and rescue teams from Virginia and California to help find survivors in the rubble. The Pentagon has been tapped to help with getting U.S. government staff and critical supplies into the country, as well. Now, this is quite a shift from how the U.S. had responded to the big Myanmar earthquake last year, when they were not able to send any search and rescue teams and only gave 9 million in aid.
SUMMERS: I wonder, why are we seeing this level of response from the administration now given that the administration has been very critical of foreign aid?
TANIS: So there's been a quiet shift in their attitude towards foreign aid in the last 10 months. The administration's created a Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response in the State Department. They've hired back some of the staff that had been laid off at USAID. They're spending more money. Now, I spoke with Jeremy Konyndyk. He was the head of disaster response under Obama. And he says the administration may have learned some lessons in the failure to respond in Myanmar.
JEREMY KONYNDYK: I think they realize when you have a breakdown on a search and rescue mission during that critical three to five day window, it's very visible and very embarrassing.
TANIS: At the same time, the administration has made it clear that it's prioritizing helping countries that are of geopolitical interest to the United States. And, of course, Venezuela is one of them after the U.S. toppled its authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
SUMMERS: Right. What can you tell us about the destruction from the earthquake there, as well as what people on the ground need?
TANIS: So damage seems pretty big. Lots of buildings have been destroyed, including health centers. I spoke with Cesar Jimenez, who is managing the response for the aid group Project Hope in Venezuela.
CESAR JIMENEZ: We're facing very, very severe emergency. This is a unique moment in our history because we were not prepared for this.
TANIS: Jimenez says they need a lot of medical supplies right now, and soon they're going to need to build shelters and fix infrastructure like water systems so people don't get sick.
SUMMERS: And you mentioned USAID earlier. What kind of work was the aid agency doing when it came to earthquakes?
TANIS: So USAID invested in a lot of programs ahead of earthquakes to bolster local preparedness, and it also maintained a presence in a country long after disaster struck. So it would send engineers to work with local authorities on safe building codes, make sure excavation equipment is placed efficiently and, you know, there were also a lot of evacuation strategies built in for the public. And now, Konyndyk says, the most important lifesaving work in an earthquake scenario is the one that's done beforehand and not after. And he says he hopes the administration will continue to invest in that type of work in Venezuela, as well.
SUMMERS: NPR's Fatma Tanis, thank you.
TANIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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