A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
When a disaster strikes somewhere in the world, U.S. aid workers usually jump into action, but Friday's earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand come as the Trump administration was firing the remaining employees at America's lead aid agency. Here's NPR's Michele Kelemen.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has a regional hub in Thailand. So soon after the earthquake, Sarah Charles, who left the agency last year, reached out to her former colleagues.
SARAH CHARLES: I heard from one colleague, you know, I evacuated the earthquake, set up communications, found temporary housing for my family and then got the RIF notice, all while trying to work on the response.
KELEMEN: The reduction in force notices went out just hours after the earthquake. Back here in Washington, officials were not only RIF'd but told to go home. Charles, who used to run USAID's Humanitarian Bureau, says normally the agency would send what's called a DART team, a disaster assistance response team, as well as search and rescue teams from LA County and Fairfax, Virginia. In 2023, USAID sent more than 200 experts to help Turkey and Syria recover from an earthquake.
CHARLES: When I look at the pictures coming out of Thailand and Burma, it feels of a similar magnitude, and seeing the response from China, from Vietnam, from Russia and elsewhere and not seeing the U.S. government there is really quite jarring.
KELEMEN: The State Department says it is sending a few experts to Myanmar, also known as Burma, and up to $2 million for some local organizations already helping people recover. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce rejects the idea that the dismantlement of USAID is hampering the U.S. response.
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TAMMY BRUCE: Certain things won't necessarily look the same, but the success in the work and our impact will still be there.
KELEMEN: But rescue teams need to be on the ground within four days to save lives, says Jeremy Konyndyk, a top aid official during the Obama administration. He also fears that the State Department, which is taking over what remains of USAID, won't be able to do the same things.
JEREMY KONYNDYK: It's going to be very hard for a state to rebuild that from scratch. And what's really just nuts about how they're doing this is they're not saying, OK, we're going to take the people who did this at AID and move them over to state. They're just clear-cutting everybody.
KELEMEN: And not preserving the experts who have led disaster teams and saved lives in past earthquakes.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.
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