00:00Just a couple points I want to make at the outset, because I know it's been in the news
00:03this morning about this earthquake in Venezuela. I had an opportunity to talk earlier this morning
00:08with Delcio Rodriguez, the acting president. We're obviously awaiting the, we're already
00:13deploying search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. There'll be
00:18some others we'll add. That's their most immediate need right now, is search and rescue efforts. They
00:22have a bunch of collapsed buildings, and so they'll need a lot of help in terms of digging through
00:26that. The airport there is badly damaged, so we'll have to rely on the Department of War
00:31to deploy assets there. And then we're also helping them with some overhead imagery, especially
00:35in coastal areas where they don't have full visibility over what the damage has been and
00:39what the impact has been. Those are the acute, like, short-term needs over the next 48 to
00:4372 hours, because in search and rescue, you're trying to get to people while you can still
00:47save their lives. They're buried under rubble. And other countries are responding as well.
00:52The Qataris have already offered assistance, as we spoke to them earlier today as well.
00:57El Salvador has stepped up, and multiple countries around the region, including Chile, and others
01:01have reached out to us to communicate and get that happening. As we move forward with
01:05that response, with the sort of the short-term phase of response recovery, the second phase,
01:10of course, will be identifying their more longer-term and acute needs. What are the things over
01:13the long-term they're going to need help with? We'll have a better assessment of that
01:16after the next 48 hours when we're on the ground and as the Venezuelan authorities get
01:21more visibility as to the level of damage in terms of housing. Where do you put all these
01:25people that don't have anywhere to go live? What we can do to help restore or help them
01:29restore their communications, their internet, their telecom, and so forth. We'll also have
01:34to manage what we expect is going to be a surge of private donation. I can imagine that there's
01:38going to be a lot of people from the United States and entities in the United States. We've already
01:43been in touch with some of the leading charities, but I know at the local level, particularly
01:47in places like where I call home in South Florida, there'll be a lot of people that are going
01:50to want to step forward and help and provide assistance. And we just need to find the way
01:54that we can step in and provide logistical support from that. In addition, of course,
01:58we've already stood up our disaster response teams at the Department of State and our humanitarian
02:03efforts. It's something we did very well in Jamaica after that storm, and it's something
02:09we're really prepared to do now. So I've already spoken to Secretary Hexeth. The Department
02:13of War is going to have to play a big logistical role here because they have the ability to
02:17land in challenging places. Right now, the airport in Caracas is damaged. One of the runways
02:22is cracked, but the Department of War has the capability to land in situations like that,
02:29so we'll need that. So we have an awful whole-of-government response. It'll be big, it'll be fast,
02:34and it'll be effective.
02:42.
02:42.
02:46You
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