MS. PSAKI: Good afternoon, everyone.
Okay. I have two updates for you. The first is one on Hurricane Ida, which is lengthy. I’m just going to give you an advance, but hopefully we’ll share a number of helpful details with all of you.
Today, as you just saw, the President and his Homeland Security team continue to monitor the impacts of Hurricane Ida, something that he was monitoring through the course of the weekend.
This was an extremely large and powerful hurricane. And as expected, early reports suggest catastrophic damage in a number of areas along the Gulf Coast. And while Ida has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, it is going to continue to inflict damage as it moves across the state of Mississippi today and into the Tennessee Valley tomorrow.
This will be a lengthy, whole-of-government, and whole-of-community response and recovery effort, and we are closely coordinating with state and local officials at every step of the way.
Today, as damage assessments and response efforts begin in the Gulf Coas- — Gulf Coast where conditions allow on the ground, we understand that responders are focused on the following immediate priorities: search and rescue operations and medical evacuations for those in distress; accelerating efforts to restore electrical power in Louisiana and Mississippi, where latest counts say — suggest that more than 1 million customers are without electricity; restoring communications where they are down; and providing emergency food, water, and shelter to those in need.
In parts of Louisiana, including New Orleans, energy companies have reported catastrophic damage to their transmission systems, and we don’t yet know how long this will take for the local utilities to repair. But clearly, that’s a big priority for everyone involved. It could be weeks to get everything fully back up and running.
Administration officials are also engaged directly with electricity sector leadership to help ensure all available resources are being brought to bear to restore power as quickly as possible.
As you all saw, the President just spoke with governors and mayors from impacted communities, and he was at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center yesterday to receive the latest updates on the response operations and to thank the hardworking staff who are working around the clock to support state and local response efforts.
The President also approved — you may have seen this, but — last night, an emergency major declaration for Louisiana, which allows individuals in the impacted areas to apply for assistance. He also approved a pre-disaster emergency declaration for Mississippi to authorize emergency preparation and protective measures and direct federal assistance.
I just want to give you a quick overview to the federal resources that are supporting state and local efforts as of now, and — many of which were pre-positioned before the storm.
FEMA is working with its federal, state, and local partners, as well as nongovernmental agencies to support needs of areas affected by Ida. The agency positioned supplies such as meals, water, and generators to assist states with impacts from the storm.
More than 3,600 FEMA employees are deployed to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas and are ready to provide additional support as needed.
FEMA has staged more than 3.4 million meals, millions of liters of water, more than 35,700 tarps, and roughly 200 generators.
Hundreds of additional ambulances and air ambulances have also been moved into the area.
Seven FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams — IMATs — and seventeen Urban Search and Rescue teams have been activated, along with debris subject matter experts.
The Department of Health and Human Services is deploying a 250-bed federal medical shelter to Alexandria, Louisiana.
And the U.S. Coast Guard has 27 rotary or fixed-wing aircraft, and the Department of Defense has 60 high-water vehicles and 14 rotary wing aircraft prepositioned to assist with — with rescue efforts.
Shelters are open in affected areas throughout the Gulf Coast across the impacted states, and they are implementing steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The National Guard has also activated more than 5,200 personnel in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama to support response efforts.
And finally, the Air — Army Corps of Engineers has activated planning and response teams for debris, temporary roofing, and temporary housing.
Again, we are working closely with state and local officials. Even though the storm has been downgraded to a tropical storm, damaging wind gusts continue to be a threat, which likely result in additional downed trees and power outages as the storm moves to — moves Northeast. And Ida will continue to produce heavy rainfall, life-threatening flash and urban flooding, and tornadoes remain a threat.
Finally, our Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will travel to Baton Rouge on Tuesday morning and will meet with the governor to survey damage. The FEMA Administrator will also travel to Jackson, Mississippi, that evening. And on Wednesday, she will meet with the governor and tour the damage.
The last update I wanted to provide to all of you is that, as part of our all-across-government effort/approach to preventing evictions, today Attorney General Merrick Garland is calling on the entire legal community to take immediate action to help prevent unnecessary evictions during this public health emergency.
The Attorney General’s call to action asks major law firms, law school students, and individual lawyers to work with courts, legal service providers, and non-profits through pro bono services to ensure access to justice for vulnerable tenants.
So far, over 40 major law school deans, including from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Howard, UCLA, and more have already committed their students and law clinics to help prevent evictions.
And presidents of several major legal organizations — including the Legal Services Corporation, the American Bar Association, and the National Housing Law Project — have joined the commitment to immediate action.
And on Thursday, we will join a nationwide emergency rental assistance program training held by the Association of Pro Bono Counsel & Law Firm Antiracism Alliance.
With that, Darlene, why don’t you kick us off?
Q Thanks, Jen. Switching to Afghanistan, as of yesterday, there were about 300 U.S. citizens who were still there who wanted to get out by the deadline. Do you have an update on that number? Are we still looking at 300 waiting to get out? Is it down to 150? Is it down to zero?
MS. PSAKI: Absolutely. Well, I know my State Department colleagues will have a more specific up-to-date number, but let me give you an update of where things stand at this point.
Of those who self-identified as Americans in Afghanistan considering leaving the country since August 14th, we have thus far received confirmation that about 6,000 have been evacuated or otherwise departed. This number will likely continue to grow as our outreach and arrivals continue. And we have been providing, as you know, regular updates to all you on evacuations.
The initial assessment, if we go back to August 14th, was that there were fewer than 6,000 Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to get out. So, as we conveyed at the time, we knew that there could be an option — one, that people who had registered had already departed; or that people had registered — had not deregistered; or that there would be additional people who came forward.
And we believe there are still a small number — I understand your exact — asking for the exact number who remain. We’re trying to determine exactly how many, and we’re going through manifests and calling and texting through our lists, and we’ll have more of a concrete number for you as soon as possible.
Part of the challenge with fixing a precise number is that there are longtime residents of Afghanistan, as we’ve talked about in here, with American passports — dual citizens, the vast majority who are still trying to determine if they want to leave or not, or have been over the last couple of days.
In some instances — in many instances, that’s because they have many family members there, but they have a range of reasons, and we’ve been working with them to assess that.
Q And then one other question on Afghanistan. The deadline is tomorrow, obviously. What can you tell us about what the President will do tomorrow? How will he mark this moment? Should the public, you know, expect to hear from him tomorrow at some point after this has all wrapped up?
MS. PSAKI: Absolutely, Darlene. Well, without getting into specific operational details — I know you’re not asking me for that, but just to preface — I think that you all can expect and the American public can expect to hear from the President in the coming days.
I don’t have anything to outline for you in terms of the specific date or time for that at this point in time.
Q Thanks.
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