Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20131120 :

Coast. We also did initial overland and overflight assessments in some of the inland areas, as as well, working with our dod rkini colleagues. Our initial assessment was that. L areas were the worst affected so that was the First Priority for focus. At as that situation has started to stabilize, maybe too strong a word but lets say head in the e direction of stabilizing, we iln have also began looking further afield in partnership with government of the philippines fe colleagues to try to reach someo of those inlandll areas. I would emphasize as well that our initial prioritization of the coast also reflected what we were begin by the Philippine Government. So from the early days we were talking to mayors and governors from the affected provinces to get their input on where they ef would advise we focused at first. Ocwed we followed that guidance fairly closely. We are Getting Better visibilitg now on what is the situation inland. And while the loss of life is es obviously less because they dids not face the storm surge, theres is fairly significant damage. Sur to structures and to crops. And so that is going to be a focus Going Forward, and were gathering more and more information on that every day. In fact we had teams out today going to some of those areas. Thank you. More the question that is frequently asked is how well is the help being coordinated . E h the Catholic Relief Services located in my state of marylandf we are proud of the role they t played. They have a Natural Alliance and are well represented in the ree philippines. We know that they mobilized right away to help in regards to their International Humanitarian mission. An mis can you share with us how the coordination is taking place pe between the Philippine Government, International Governmental responses and the ngo responses . And how that is coming together . Absolutely. Well i think its first important to emphasize that the government of the philippines is in the lead. We have worked with them for sort of a good news bad news story. So we have a great relationship with them responding to a disasters. Bad news is we are there five or six times a year. Because of that we have a longstanding relationship with the philippine authorities and e Natural Disaster management authorities there, and we work i very closely and very well togetheran. They are in the lead. They have been providing invaluable information on priorities and needsad. The u. N. Activated what it calls the cluster system which is them globallyrecognized system for coordinating response across the united nations, ngos and humanitarian actors. That is coled with the government of the philippines. They are directly integrated into that. In we are working very closely with that. And within the u. S. Government doing nightly interagency calls and a variety of other mechanisms to make sure that wen have our own house in order. G its been going fairly well so far as more and more ngos come in it will become a greater fa challenge. The does the government of the pp philippines coordinate the capacities of the ngos and the need, the capacities of participating International Partners as well as their own cash requirements . Is that balanced together . Yeah. Lanced their involvement in those cluster coordination meetings so you have a meeting on health every day, water every day. On government of philippines is day involved in those and able to d hear what ngos capacities are available, what their plans are, provide feedback on that and provide feedback on priorities, in addition to its own activities. As i mentioned there are 4 million americans plus that have filipino heritage. Mi there is strong compassion among the American People to be engaged. People want to help. I think thats true help internationally, but. Ats particularly true here in ationa america. Ll is there any advice you can givu americans who may want to participate in the relief efforo as to how they can best interact to the coordinated efforts . Absolutely. Our general advice has always, t the best way to support in the early response is to give cash. R it is the most efficient way to give cash to a Reputable Organization that they know andi trust is the best way to get assistance in. Orga inkind assistance from the u. St can be valuable but it often costs more to ship it from the u. S. Than the value of the assistance itself. So its generally more efficient and certainly a lot quicker to e provide cash assistance to, you know, groups like we met ps lik yesterday at the round table meeting. For more information there is ee cidi. Org, center for International Disaster inte information, thats a usaid partner and they have a lot of n information there on how to givt effectively in this kind of situation. If i could add, mr. Chairman, both usaid and state have been in touch with major with philippine american associations, briefing them on what we are doing and talking about ways they can help. There will be a lot of work to do, recovery, reconstruction. Its still early days, but talking to philippine american associations, u. S. Foundations, u. S. Businesses about how going further down the road they can o contribute. Contri this is going to be a longterm effort with a lot of loordina coordination. Thank you. If americans want to check on the status of relatives and thea friends, how do they do that if they cannot make direct connections . Mr. Chairman, the embassy anb state department have been focused on american citizens, first as a priority for us. So we have a system set up syst through our own task force wher people who have been able to ae call in or email in, talk to people and working with our embassy, weve been able to track down about almost 475 americans in response. For people looking to try to track down nonamerican citizens, filipino nationals,s its a little bit harder just given the numbers. We we encouraged them to talk to ct contact philippine authorities, the red cross in the philippinei can also help. N Philippine Red Cross has a website for families that ed cro families can reach out to a directly. Or friends to try to help locate filipino citizens. S. We know this is going to be g longterm project, of course, dealing with the immediate the m individuals that are still in i harms way and then looking at how the United States properly w can assist in dealing with the longterm needs. It we appreciate you keeping this Committee Informed as to the status and how you see the needs and the role that the United States should consider playing. Senator rubio . Bio . Thank you. I heard from a lot of people inr florida who are desperate to ha hear from loved ones as well aso provide a helping hand during the relief and recovery operations. For example, a resident of jacksonville last spoke to her o parents five minutes before ther were evacuating and she hasnt a heard since. Acuati she hasnt slept for five days. E what advice do we have for ays. People in this circumstance tryg trying to reach loved ones in the philippines . Ines . I imagine its still l logistically difficult. Have do we have any advice would you say i should be giving people in regard to that . Senator, i wish there was an easy answer. If they are philippine citizens missing or who havent been ben heard from in the philippines, going to the Philippine Red Cross website where you can make inquiries, as well as contacting philippine authorities who are l in a long effort to try to make sure everybody is found, i think jeremy could speak a little bit to the communications because i think one of the problems is cell phone connections were lost. And that will be key to getting that going again. Absolutely. Thank you, senator. Lutely the communications infrastructure, especially in the coastal areas was ravaged by the storm. M. It is slowly returning and there is 3g coverage. Its spotty, but its there. It in tacloban city. The so were seeing that slowly restored. I know the Philippines Embassy here has set up some mechanisms for citizens to check up on their relatives in the philippines and can be a hub for information on that. They can be directed there, as a well. They we heard from several organizations, the Filipino American association of southwest florida and cape coral, council for Filipino American organizations, they ary looking for ways to help in thep relief and recovery efforts. What advice do we give them. In terms of streamlining their efforts to make sure it reacheso the intended beneficiaries as s quickly and as efficiently as possible . If they are filipino americao groups, i imagine they have very good connections with communities there in the philippines. Connect thats often one of the best mmt protections. You want to make sure any group youre supporting actually has g footprint that is relevant to the nature of the crisis. I would imagine that many will h Filipino American organizationsp will have links to community woa groups in the philippines that would have that kind of a footprint. I would underscore its always best in this kind of a situatioa to support them with cash. Not only is that more efficient, but also helps support the recovery of local markets. If we bring in, groups bring in, a lot of in kind supplies, those supplies are not being bought if the philippines and not ending p up in the philippines economy. Those would be a couple. Theres a lot more on the cidi. Org website. A lot i think you answered this ar before, i may have missed it asr i wasal taking notes, but what the federal agency in our government that has the lead and convening power in terms of our relief efforts . Thats my office. We have under the foreign assistance act authority delegated to the president whici is delegated to usaid as the ed lead federal coordinator on International Disaster response. We have been coordinating, we work with the military to validate requests, and work witw them to help steer their efforto towards wherert it is where is the most value add and working closely with the state t department and other interagency colleagues on that koord nationn one of the things weve seenr in the past from humanitarian crisis in places like the cris earthquake in haiti, children displaced become potential victims of trafficking and ti, things of this nature. Is that part of our response coe efforts . Are we thinking about how we f could some estimates are 2 million children have been affected. What are the steps we are thinking about or who is we thinking about things we can doo to reduce the risk of abuse in trafficking and things like that . In of weve seen that in the past. That absolutely. Yes, thank you. Absolutely that is a serious concern. And trafficking, and i know t t that that scot can talk more to the trafficking aspect in particular. On the usaid side we have sent a protection adviser on to the adisaster Assistance Response Team to look into exactly this set of issues. We have also been in all of our partnersship so far, ensuring that we do a technical review o those that takes those kinds of issues into account to make sure that nothing that any of our partners are doing could inadvertently be supporting or enailing that. And Going Forward, i think were going to look into more specific Program Options to ensure that that is addressed. Ras my last question is more on the geopolitical realm, but po critical long term as we go to the American People and justify our ability. Ustify if you look at this as a multifaceted response it looks e as our aid agencies, diplomatic response, it also has a military component in terms of being able to deliver aid and ss forth and calls attention to why our military serves a purpose well beyond conducting warfare. E the principle objective is to provide for National Security but has logistical capabilities unrivalled and unmatched anywhere in the world. In th in contrast is the chinese response to this has been so limited, at best. N theres all kinds of speculation as to why. Li what has been the perception of thatmi. Has that been noticed that the t chinese are not there . Ch they doin have an aid ship, i think its called the peace arks its a hospital ship that they have not deployed, and i mean, what is the perception as to whe the chinese have not jumped outj and and participated more robustly in response to a crisis in their region . Respon senator, that is a good isis question. G i would say i absolutely agreeo with you that we responded fully to this crisis for humanitarians reasons. But i think it has shown hink i think reinforced in the minds of filipino people, that were t longtime and good partner that they can depend on. I think more broadly throughout the region has highlighted what weve been saying throughout th region that the u. S. Military, u as you said, in addition to to being an unmatched fighting force, also brings unmatched logistical capabilities. Which they use, unfortunately al have to use quite often in the f region for disaster response. I think thats gone widely noticed. I wouldnt want to speculate on why the chinese have responded the way they have. I do know at some point d philippine authorities suggestet there was no need for further gd medical equipment and support, r whether that played a role on ma the hospital ship not coming, im not sure. Ship i think the more important point from our perspective is by doing the right thing, weve seen seen in the region as doing the righe thing. St well, just my editorial comment to close, and i dont expect you to respond to it, bur we have this debate going on in this country how engaged the u. S. Needs to be around the world diplomatically in aid programs, and of course militarily with our presence. This is an example what would mi happen if the u. S. Did retreat e from the global stage. There is no substitute for the United States as the people of e the philippines would probably b agree at this point, seeing the response that were giving. As far as the chinese are are concerned, all this talk about containing china, that is not co our goal. Is we would love to see the peaceful rise of china. We would like to see them assume what leadership nations do e to around the globe. A this is an example of chinese a foreign policy. Le which is, you know, if you go its a oneway street. If you can go into these countries and do everything the want you to do, they respond with cash assistance and things of this nature. On the other hand its well documented that they have territorial disputes with the s philippines, which the e philippines is right on and the chinese are wrong on, and youve seen the result now when you onn have a humanitarian crisis, thev chinese have been less than willing to respond. E are compare that to the united le states which consistently has ss been willing to put aside whatever political differences e we may have when a humanitarianr crisis strikes. We saw it in pakistan, haiti, weve seen it here and in other places, and including japan, of, course, a very close ally. Of but my point is i think this is a graphic example of imagine a World Without an engaged United States. This response effort would not be at the stage its at right now. I think its just obviously thes right thing to do, but also ng calls attention to how important it is that we remain engaged not just in this region but all oves the world and i thank you both for your service. Senator rubio, thank you for your comments. Senator flake . With regard to chinese involvement, there are also entt issues they have disputes with philippines in the south china u sea. How much has that played, do you think, in their inability or unwillingness to help out . Senator, its a good ess to question. H the disputes between china and the philippines over maritime boundaries in particular is wel known. Partic i dont want to try to speak for the Chinese Government because i dont know how much, if at all,o thats affected their response. But certainly, the disputes have been getting a lot of attentiont and something we pay a lot of on attention to, as well. We heard mostly about the out efforts in tacloban. Can you talk about efforts in ua some of the other provinces, islands, what is the u. S. Doing . Absolutely. The storm first made landfall ie the area of guiuan which is in the far east of samar island, and then continued along througn the central philippines, going almost directly over top of tacloban city, and onwards across the northern tip of the island of cebu, and then some of the islands further west. It had weakened by that time. So the worst damage that weve t seen really is in that about a 40mile a 40mile strip north and south of the central path of the typhoon. And the worst affected really are in those coastial areas from guiuan in the east over to tacloban and the other side of leyte island. But after that its bad but we didnt see the ferocious storm surge. The u. S. Military working in partnership with usaid has been delivering aid shipments all dei over that, all over those coastal areas. There is a great map. Those i dont have it with me, but wer can make sure you get it, that y the marine units did showing it, where they did all those air drops, sorry, all those drop deliveries, excuse me. And that it just there are dots all over that coast. The ca all over those coastal areas. Thats where its been focused. Now were starting to look intod some of the inland areas which s suffered wind and rain damage, but obviously not the storm surge. The world bank made loans available or will make loans available for better buildings, more storm resistant infrastructure there. Is the Philippine Government anticipate to participate or toi take advantage of this or not . H . Id start by saying, i think in the wake in the face of ai storm surge like we saw there, s theres only so much you can do. And i think we even saw that can here with First Priority<\/a> for focus. At as that situation has started to stabilize, maybe too strong a word but lets say head in the e direction of stabilizing, we iln have also began looking further afield in partnership with government of the philippines fe colleagues to try to reach someo of those inlandll areas. I would emphasize as well that our initial prioritization of the coast also reflected what we were begin by the Philippine Government<\/a>. So from the early days we were talking to mayors and governors from the affected provinces to get their input on where they ef would advise we focused at first. Ocwed we followed that guidance fairly closely. We are Getting Better<\/a> visibilitg now on what is the situation inland. And while the loss of life is es obviously less because they dids not face the storm surge, theres is fairly significant damage. Sur to structures and to crops. And so that is going to be a focus Going Forward<\/a>, and were gathering more and more information on that every day. In fact we had teams out today going to some of those areas. Thank you. More the question that is frequently asked is how well is the help being coordinated . E h the Catholic Relief Services<\/a> located in my state of marylandf we are proud of the role they t played. They have a Natural Alliance<\/a> and are well represented in the ree philippines. We know that they mobilized right away to help in regards to their International Humanitarian<\/a> mission. An mis can you share with us how the coordination is taking place pe between the Philippine Government<\/a>, International Governmental<\/a> responses and the ngo responses . And how that is coming together . Absolutely. Well i think its first important to emphasize that the government of the philippines is in the lead. We have worked with them for sort of a good news bad news story. So we have a great relationship with them responding to a disasters. Bad news is we are there five or six times a year. Because of that we have a longstanding relationship with the philippine authorities and e Natural Disaster<\/a> management authorities there, and we work i very closely and very well togetheran. They are in the lead. They have been providing invaluable information on priorities and needsad. The u. N. Activated what it calls the cluster system which is them globallyrecognized system for coordinating response across the united nations, ngos and humanitarian actors. That is coled with the government of the philippines. They are directly integrated into that. In we are working very closely with that. And within the u. S. Government doing nightly interagency calls and a variety of other mechanisms to make sure that wen have our own house in order. G its been going fairly well so far as more and more ngos come in it will become a greater fa challenge. The does the government of the pp philippines coordinate the capacities of the ngos and the need, the capacities of participating International Partners<\/a> as well as their own cash requirements . Is that balanced together . Yeah. Lanced their involvement in those cluster coordination meetings so you have a meeting on health every day, water every day. On government of philippines is day involved in those and able to d hear what ngos capacities are available, what their plans are, provide feedback on that and provide feedback on priorities, in addition to its own activities. As i mentioned there are 4 million americans plus that have filipino heritage. Mi there is strong compassion among the American People<\/a> to be engaged. People want to help. I think thats true help internationally, but. Ats particularly true here in ationa america. Ll is there any advice you can givu americans who may want to participate in the relief efforo as to how they can best interact to the coordinated efforts . Absolutely. Our general advice has always, t the best way to support in the early response is to give cash. R it is the most efficient way to give cash to a Reputable Organization<\/a> that they know andi trust is the best way to get assistance in. Orga inkind assistance from the u. St can be valuable but it often costs more to ship it from the u. S. Than the value of the assistance itself. So its generally more efficient and certainly a lot quicker to e provide cash assistance to, you know, groups like we met ps lik yesterday at the round table meeting. For more information there is ee cidi. Org, center for International Disaster<\/a> inte information, thats a usaid partner and they have a lot of n information there on how to givt effectively in this kind of situation. If i could add, mr. Chairman, both usaid and state have been in touch with major with philippine american associations, briefing them on what we are doing and talking about ways they can help. There will be a lot of work to do, recovery, reconstruction. Its still early days, but talking to philippine american associations, u. S. Foundations, u. S. Businesses about how going further down the road they can o contribute. Contri this is going to be a longterm effort with a lot of loordina coordination. Thank you. If americans want to check on the status of relatives and thea friends, how do they do that if they cannot make direct connections . Mr. Chairman, the embassy anb state department have been focused on american citizens, first as a priority for us. So we have a system set up syst through our own task force wher people who have been able to ae call in or email in, talk to people and working with our embassy, weve been able to track down about almost 475 americans in response. For people looking to try to track down nonamerican citizens, filipino nationals,s its a little bit harder just given the numbers. We we encouraged them to talk to ct contact philippine authorities, the red cross in the philippinei can also help. N Philippine Red Cross<\/a> has a website for families that ed cro families can reach out to a directly. Or friends to try to help locate filipino citizens. S. We know this is going to be g longterm project, of course, dealing with the immediate the m individuals that are still in i harms way and then looking at how the United States<\/a> properly w can assist in dealing with the longterm needs. It we appreciate you keeping this Committee Informed<\/a> as to the status and how you see the needs and the role that the United States<\/a> should consider playing. Senator rubio . Bio . Thank you. I heard from a lot of people inr florida who are desperate to ha hear from loved ones as well aso provide a helping hand during the relief and recovery operations. For example, a resident of jacksonville last spoke to her o parents five minutes before ther were evacuating and she hasnt a heard since. Acuati she hasnt slept for five days. E what advice do we have for ays. People in this circumstance tryg trying to reach loved ones in the philippines . Ines . I imagine its still l logistically difficult. Have do we have any advice would you say i should be giving people in regard to that . Senator, i wish there was an easy answer. If they are philippine citizens missing or who havent been ben heard from in the philippines, going to the Philippine Red Cross<\/a> website where you can make inquiries, as well as contacting philippine authorities who are l in a long effort to try to make sure everybody is found, i think jeremy could speak a little bit to the communications because i think one of the problems is cell phone connections were lost. And that will be key to getting that going again. Absolutely. Thank you, senator. Lutely the communications infrastructure, especially in the coastal areas was ravaged by the storm. M. It is slowly returning and there is 3g coverage. Its spotty, but its there. It in tacloban city. The so were seeing that slowly restored. I know the Philippines Embassy<\/a> here has set up some mechanisms for citizens to check up on their relatives in the philippines and can be a hub for information on that. They can be directed there, as a well. They we heard from several organizations, the Filipino American<\/a> association of southwest florida and cape coral, council for Filipino American<\/a> organizations, they ary looking for ways to help in thep relief and recovery efforts. What advice do we give them. In terms of streamlining their efforts to make sure it reacheso the intended beneficiaries as s quickly and as efficiently as possible . If they are filipino americao groups, i imagine they have very good connections with communities there in the philippines. Connect thats often one of the best mmt protections. You want to make sure any group youre supporting actually has g footprint that is relevant to the nature of the crisis. I would imagine that many will h Filipino American<\/a> organizationsp will have links to community woa groups in the philippines that would have that kind of a footprint. I would underscore its always best in this kind of a situatioa to support them with cash. Not only is that more efficient, but also helps support the recovery of local markets. If we bring in, groups bring in, a lot of in kind supplies, those supplies are not being bought if the philippines and not ending p up in the philippines economy. Those would be a couple. Theres a lot more on the cidi. Org website. A lot i think you answered this ar before, i may have missed it asr i wasal taking notes, but what the federal agency in our government that has the lead and convening power in terms of our relief efforts . Thats my office. We have under the foreign assistance act authority delegated to the president whici is delegated to usaid as the ed lead federal coordinator on International Disaster<\/a> response. We have been coordinating, we work with the military to validate requests, and work witw them to help steer their efforto towards wherert it is where is the most value add and working closely with the state t department and other interagency colleagues on that koord nationn one of the things weve seenr in the past from humanitarian crisis in places like the cris earthquake in haiti, children displaced become potential victims of trafficking and ti, things of this nature. Is that part of our response coe efforts . Are we thinking about how we f could some estimates are 2 million children have been affected. What are the steps we are thinking about or who is we thinking about things we can doo to reduce the risk of abuse in trafficking and things like that . In of weve seen that in the past. That absolutely. Yes, thank you. Absolutely that is a serious concern. And trafficking, and i know t t that that scot can talk more to the trafficking aspect in particular. On the usaid side we have sent a protection adviser on to the adisaster Assistance Response Team<\/a> to look into exactly this set of issues. We have also been in all of our partnersship so far, ensuring that we do a technical review o those that takes those kinds of issues into account to make sure that nothing that any of our partners are doing could inadvertently be supporting or enailing that. And Going Forward<\/a>, i think were going to look into more specific Program Options<\/a> to ensure that that is addressed. Ras my last question is more on the geopolitical realm, but po critical long term as we go to the American People<\/a> and justify our ability. Ustify if you look at this as a multifaceted response it looks e as our aid agencies, diplomatic response, it also has a military component in terms of being able to deliver aid and ss forth and calls attention to why our military serves a purpose well beyond conducting warfare. E the principle objective is to provide for National Security<\/a> but has logistical capabilities unrivalled and unmatched anywhere in the world. In th in contrast is the chinese response to this has been so limited, at best. N theres all kinds of speculation as to why. Li what has been the perception of thatmi. Has that been noticed that the t chinese are not there . Ch they doin have an aid ship, i think its called the peace arks its a hospital ship that they have not deployed, and i mean, what is the perception as to whe the chinese have not jumped outj and and participated more robustly in response to a crisis in their region . Respon senator, that is a good isis question. G i would say i absolutely agreeo with you that we responded fully to this crisis for humanitarians reasons. But i think it has shown hink i think reinforced in the minds of filipino people, that were t longtime and good partner that they can depend on. I think more broadly throughout the region has highlighted what weve been saying throughout th region that the u. S. Military, u as you said, in addition to to being an unmatched fighting force, also brings unmatched logistical capabilities. Which they use, unfortunately al have to use quite often in the f region for disaster response. I think thats gone widely noticed. I wouldnt want to speculate on why the chinese have responded the way they have. I do know at some point d philippine authorities suggestet there was no need for further gd medical equipment and support, r whether that played a role on ma the hospital ship not coming, im not sure. Ship i think the more important point from our perspective is by doing the right thing, weve seen seen in the region as doing the righe thing. St well, just my editorial comment to close, and i dont expect you to respond to it, bur we have this debate going on in this country how engaged the u. S. Needs to be around the world diplomatically in aid programs, and of course militarily with our presence. This is an example what would mi happen if the u. S. Did retreat e from the global stage. There is no substitute for the United States<\/a> as the people of e the philippines would probably b agree at this point, seeing the response that were giving. As far as the chinese are are concerned, all this talk about containing china, that is not co our goal. Is we would love to see the peaceful rise of china. We would like to see them assume what leadership nations do e to around the globe. A this is an example of chinese a foreign policy. Le which is, you know, if you go its a oneway street. If you can go into these countries and do everything the want you to do, they respond with cash assistance and things of this nature. On the other hand its well documented that they have territorial disputes with the s philippines, which the e philippines is right on and the chinese are wrong on, and youve seen the result now when you onn have a humanitarian crisis, thev chinese have been less than willing to respond. E are compare that to the united le states which consistently has ss been willing to put aside whatever political differences e we may have when a humanitarianr crisis strikes. We saw it in pakistan, haiti, weve seen it here and in other places, and including japan, of, course, a very close ally. Of but my point is i think this is a graphic example of imagine a World Without<\/a> an engaged United States<\/a>. This response effort would not be at the stage its at right now. I think its just obviously thes right thing to do, but also ng calls attention to how important it is that we remain engaged not just in this region but all oves the world and i thank you both for your service. Senator rubio, thank you for your comments. Senator flake . With regard to chinese involvement, there are also entt issues they have disputes with philippines in the south china u sea. How much has that played, do you think, in their inability or unwillingness to help out . Senator, its a good ess to question. H the disputes between china and the philippines over maritime boundaries in particular is wel known. Partic i dont want to try to speak for the Chinese Government<\/a> because i dont know how much, if at all,o thats affected their response. But certainly, the disputes have been getting a lot of attentiont and something we pay a lot of on attention to, as well. We heard mostly about the out efforts in tacloban. Can you talk about efforts in ua some of the other provinces, islands, what is the u. S. Doing . Absolutely. The storm first made landfall ie the area of guiuan which is in the far east of samar island, and then continued along througn the central philippines, going almost directly over top of tacloban city, and onwards across the northern tip of the island of cebu, and then some of the islands further west. It had weakened by that time. So the worst damage that weve t seen really is in that about a 40mile a 40mile strip north and south of the central path of the typhoon. And the worst affected really are in those coastial areas from guiuan in the east over to tacloban and the other side of leyte island. But after that its bad but we didnt see the ferocious storm surge. The u. S. Military working in partnership with usaid has been delivering aid shipments all dei over that, all over those coastal areas. There is a great map. Those i dont have it with me, but wer can make sure you get it, that y the marine units did showing it, where they did all those air drops, sorry, all those drop deliveries, excuse me. And that it just there are dots all over that coast. The ca all over those coastal areas. Thats where its been focused. Now were starting to look intod some of the inland areas which s suffered wind and rain damage, but obviously not the storm surge. The world bank made loans available or will make loans available for better buildings, more storm resistant infrastructure there. Is the Philippine Government<\/a> anticipate to participate or toi take advantage of this or not . H . Id start by saying, i think in the wake in the face of ai storm surge like we saw there, s theres only so much you can do. And i think we even saw that can here with Hurricane Sandy<\/a> a few years ago. That is just first oeshs force. With that said, the building, wh improved buildings and whole range of other Natural Disaster<\/a> Risk Reduction<\/a> activities have a been a focus of yousaids partnership with the government of the philippines and the world Banks Partnership<\/a> for quite some time. And wo i would certain imagine that img that will be a focus Going Forward<\/a>. This this is a huge this is a huge priority now for the whole development and humanitarian community and i would expect that any tool tool thats appropriate to that context will be used. Thank you. Senator, if i could just add real quickly, i think per jeremys point, the philippine r government actually did a lot to prepare for this storm, becausea they had a little bit of warning. I think if i remember right they evacuated almost 800,000 people. Evacuated in the sense of of bringing them to shelters. Again, not anticipating, none oi us anticipated, the storm surgeo which caused a lot of the damagt and probably a lot of the deaths. And since the storm, has done as good job facilitating not only ours but international assistance. I think they deserve a lot of rs credit for that. The first responsibility obviously of government to make sure that u. S. Citizens. Living there are taken care of h and i just want to commend u. S. E government response in that eree record. I am family members who are there serving mormon missions. And there was a situation in tuo tacloban with a number of mormon missionaries who were eventualls brought to safety i wn manila ba c130 flying out of tacloban. O and they endured a lot. Gratefully, all were safe. But the u. S. Government helped a great deal in that regard. Saved were you aware of that . Or senator, i wasnt aware of that particular case, but i certainly am aware that u. S. F military did transport a number of american citizens. 23, i think 123, if i remember do correctly. Ill doublecheck that number. From tacloban up to manila or cebu. People who were affected by the storm. As well as a lot of filipinos who have needed care. Thats right. Well, thank you for that and thank you for the response. Senator schatz, as i pointed out, is not a member of the committee but will you give him the courtesy to ask questions through the chair. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman and members for your indulgence. Thanks to the testifiers. And mr. Ambassador, our condolences and our appreciation for all your good work. Director konyndyk, could you take us through the next six to nine months as we move into the recovery phase and sort of whats the best Case Scenario<\/a> from a recovery standpoint and d whats the worst Case Scenario<\/a> and what kinds of resources american and international inten private, not for profit need tot be put together so that we can r avoid the worst Case Scenario<\/a>. Absolutely. And thank you for that question. So first obviously theres onlyc so much we can speculate becausa theres still a lot we dont kn. Know. Were gathering a lot ofwe information. We are currently heavily focusey on insuring that we get the e g relief response right. And that has been an intense rl focus for the past ten days. But we are beginning to think about the longer term and what thats going to look like. I will be traveling out tomorrow and thats going to be a major f focus of my trip is exploring more of that. We we know some things now. We know, for example, s transitional shelter will be anr enormous priority. We are providing Emergency Shelter<\/a> materials right now. The heavyduty plastic sheetinga that was shown earlier. And that can get people a g certain period. But its obviously not a longterm solution. Rubble clearance will be a sign significant challenge. And were already talking with e the military about whether the h u. S. Military can play a role ia that. T thats obviously a significant t policy question for the government of the philippines ai well. We know as well things like agriculture will be important focus on. Of a number of important ere agricultural crops were wiped out by the storm. And this is an agricultural area. Theres coconut farming. Theres rice farming. And other agricultural commodities. Were going to be moving swiftly, coordinating with the usa Development Mission<\/a> in the h philippines to address some of o those what we call early recovery needs and ensure there are not deficits there. Id also point out that there is a robust Development Mission<\/a> the u. S. Has in the philippines and they will be also prioritizing this response over the coming six to nine months. So i thinks. Its been nse established that the United States<\/a> response has been robustn has been well coordinated and has exceeded by orders of magnitude the response of any d other country. Sponse but my question for you is scale. Certainly what were doing is a lot. How does it compare to the current needs . Are we anywhere near dealing with the consequence managementt piece ofhi this before we move into recovery. The response is no doubt robust, but is it enough . Ne and how much more will we need p to do to sort of wrap our arms around this problem in the next several weeks . I t yeah. Well, i think the u. S. Role so far has been crucial in getting aid in but also has been crucial in setting the foundation for aa much m broader aid effort. So by clearing out some of thosi initial logistical problems in Close Partnership<\/a> with the government of the philippines wn have really enabled a the much broader aid response that without that partnership between the u. S. Aid, the state been department and the department of defense would not be possible. In terms of resource available,f we are getting more and more clarity on that. There is a lot coming in now. Anl the u. S. Is still the largest but australia has put in a substantial amount. The u. N. Has put in a substantial amount. And the d,u. N. Has asked for 30 million for the initial response and i think as of yesterday yes there was about 55 that had been committed, which for this point in a crisis within just a few days of the appeal launching is generally considered to be a pretty good figure. Now that figure is not based on a huge amount of evidence a because it came out early. Th theres a lot more examination ongoing now of what that true scale of the need and the response requirements will be. And some of the other donor inare beginning to come online. I feel like its in a good place for this point in time. Is the momentum is positive. The u. S. Assistance and u. S. Role was absolutely critical in getting momentum and getting the ball rolling. He and Going Forward<\/a> were going v. To well have to see how needs evolve but were on a good trajectory for this point in the crisis. Thank you so much. Crisi and chairman, on behalf of the nearly 200,000 filipino in americans living in hawaii we nn really appreciate your aii, indulgence and all of your greae work in this very difficult. Time. Appr thank you. Thank you, senator schatz. Appreciate your being here. Today the cameras are here and were all focused on how we can help and obviously its receiving the type of priority s it should. One of the purposes of this hearing is to make sure that in the months ahead the focus is i still on how americaca can help with the International Community<\/a> and the government of the philippines. So thats why i think it was particularly important to hold s this hearing but to let people know this is not the end of our interest on this issue as to how we move forward. Senator markey is here. And he will be recognized. T thank you. Mr. Chairman. Very much. So in the wake of the disaster there is also a risk of secondary disasters, unsanitaryi drinking water, rapidly spreading virus. Readin what precautions and measures et are beingio taken to prevent to outbreaks of Infectious Diseases<\/a> . And i dont know if thatre question had been asked. No, it had not. Tion its a good question. Thank you, senator. That is a major concern of ours. And we have been putting a very attentive focus on the Health Sector<\/a> from the u. S. A. I. D. Said. At this point we have not seen and the department of department of health has not seen ons indications of disease outbreaks. Its always a risk in this kind of a situation as you note because of a lot of standing water and often poor sanitation. And thats why from the very beginning u. S. A. I. D. In partnership with our d. O. D. Colleagues have really prioritized water and sanitation in our response, so that people have access to clean water and that they can address some of the sanitary issues and hygiene issues that often go hand in in hand with that increased disease risk. So will the ship usns mercy be deployed . Senator, at this point no. Pacific command was prepared to deploy, but philippine authorities advised that they s would rather have us focus in other areas, that they felt likl they had sufficient assistance plus their own resources on the medical side. Si at a time like this we need to focus on helping the survivors and the uss George Washington<\/a> and other ships thap provide essential help in savg e lives but we also need to be concerned about the next storm and the one after that. How did the Early Warning<\/a> systee perform, and how could it be improved . It was certainly a significant factor in this case can. And while its hard to speculate how many lives it saved i think we can say pretty confidently it definitely saved lives. U. S. A. I. D. , the office of foreign Disaster Assistance<\/a> and our mission in the philippines have worked many years with the government of the philippines to help build up their disaster Risk Reduction<\/a> capacity and they take that very seriously because they are hit by disasters many, many times a year. They tak in this case the storm was hit anticipated well in advance. And there are regional nce. Meteorological networks that help contribute to that awareness. That enabled the government of the philippines to evacuate nearly 800,000 people into Emergency Shelter<\/a>s out of the way of the storms path as well as prepositioned food and some other commodities. So reports the storm surge took many people by surprise you think is exaggerated . Surge the storm surge was surprising. What we were anticipating was certainly heavy winds, rainfall actually, we were r anticipating a much worse rainfall problem than we saw. 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