MELISSA BLOCK, host:
We're joined now by the man named by President Obama to coordinate U.S. aid efforts in Haiti - Rajiv Shah is the new head of the Agency for International Development, or AID. He had been in his job for just five days when the earthquake hit.
Rajiv Shah, welcome back to the program.
Dr. RAJIV SHAH (Director, USAID): Thank you, Melissa.
BLOCK: You've said the immediate priority in Haiti has been search and rescue, but there are just a handful of U.S. search and rescue teams on the ground now as the window for finding people and saving lives closes. Why so few teams?
Dr. SHAH: Well, actually, we have 24 teams as international effort actively engaged in urban search and rescue. The United States was the first country to get a team in and, in fact, our Fairfax, Virginia team set up a operation at the airport, so that as the other teams came in, they could deploy them to different parts of Port-au-Prince and organize and coordinate the search and rescue effort.
BLOCK: Four U.S. teams you think is enough for the job at hand?
Dr. SHAH: Well, unfortunately, nothing's enough. You know, unfortunately, the window to save lives is 72 hours, and we had two teams on standby so the moment the disaster hit, those teams were deployed. The Haitian government and the United Nations have both asked that we have other teams on standby ready to go in, but they've suggested that they're at capacity.
BLOCK: You've talked about a lot of aid that's on the way to Haiti: food and water and tarps, but so far very little has actually gotten out to the people, three days now, after the earthquake. And we've heard, of course, about the bottleneck at the airport in Port-au-Prince. Can you describe the hurdles of getting the aid that's coming in out to the people quickly?
Dr. SHAH: Sure. Well, it's a very challenging logistics operation. You can think about it in a few phases. I mean, one is you have to identify and be responsive to what the requests for support are. So we've been working very closely with the Haitian government. The President of the United States spoke with the Haitian president, President Preval.
We're also coordinating deeply with partners around the world. And please remember, this is an earthquake that is the worst earthquake they've had in two centuries. And it has destroyed a tremendous amount of infrastructure. So, things we take for granted like landing large aircraft or unloading a plane and moving it so that you can land another one, because it's a very small runway and airport, and, you know, the air traffic control tower had been destroyed in the earthquake. And so traffic control had to be managed so planes didn't collide midair. There are tremendous amount of logistics just getting that in.
BLOCK: The World Food Program says they run the risk of having social unrest very soon - these are their words - unless food and water distribution centers are set up quickly. People are desperate. They're begging in the streets. They have no water and nothing to eat. Does that concern of social unrest - does that concern you as well?
Dr. SHAH: We recognize the extent of this tragedy. We really do. And that is why the president has been so focused on making sure that our response is swift and aggressive. And we are working with the World Food Program, in fact, very, very closely. We have $48 million of food assistance that we have on the way. We are today delivering meals ready to eat and daily rations. And so those are foods that don't require preparation or high-energy formulations and will be deployed through the aircraft carrier. So, we're taking significant, urgent and emergency precautions to make sure we meet food and water needs as quickly as possible.
BLOCK: Dr. Shah, I keep hearing you use the future tense. A lot of these things are things that are coming or will be coming in, and the real question for so many people right now there, of course, you've heard the voices yourself is we need it now. We needed it yesterday. We needed it two days ago.
Dr. SHAH: Yeah, these things are underway and some of these things have already taken place in terms of being delivered, though, the relief operation will steadily increase because it is tough. I mean, roads have to be cleared and the immediate mission and the immediate priority continues to be saving lives. And so we have teams working around the clock drilling through layers of concrete and saving Haitians, Americans and international citizens.
So, you know, it is an all-hands-on-deck effort. It is an aggressive effort. We are not standing by. It is something that we are trying to do with the full force and capacity that we have. So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to do that in partnership with the Haitian government and with the United Nations, which themselves have suffered some tragic losses through this process.
BLOCK: Dr. Shah, thank you.
Dr. SHAH: Thank you.
BLOCK: Rajiv Shah is head of USAID. He's coordinating the U.S. disaster relief response to Haiti, and he heads there tomorrow with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.