This as president Bidens Deadline to get out of the deadline quickly approaches. Hello, everyone. Im sandra smith, Monday Morning here in New York. Nice to see you, john. John in washington, d. C. , A Little Bit of a time difference but not much. [laughs] hope you had a good weekend, sandra. Im John Roberts in washington, good to see you. This, after five rockets were fired at the airport over night, when making it through Defense Systems and landing inside the perimeter. U. S. Officials are stressing this is the most dangerous time of the mission, the phased withdrawal of u. S. And couldnt leave the forces still on the ground even more vulnerable to attack. Sandra indeed. Weve got a packed hour. Just ahead, Walid Phares will join us, Morgan Ortagus Coming Up, and Congressman Peter Meijer is here, as well. Fox Team Coverage begins now. Bill hemmer will join us in moments. John but first to the Pentagon And Jennifer griffin to kick us off this monday afternoon. Hey, jennifer. U. S. Troops continued to come under attack as weve reported all weekend. We have new video from the car from which those rockets are fired at the Kabul Airport. You can see the tubes in the trunk. Officials told us today one of those rockets made it through u. S. Defenses. That one rocket landed with no effect to the mission, you mean it landed inside the Airport Perimeter but it did not affect the mission . It landed inside the perimeter and had no effect whatsoever. And these isisk fighters or planners that have targeted with Drone Strikes in the last few days, or any of them with a release from the Bob Graham Prison where they noncombatants inside this prison . I dont think we have the information. The u. S. Military wants a second strike sunday, it destroyed a parked van which was packed with explosives carrying two suicide bombers. The pentagon says it was a secondary explosion after the Drone Strikes that may have killed civilians there. They are investigating. In terms of americans evacuated, the pentagon says 5400 americans have been evacuated to date and about 300 americans may be left. That number is actually closer to 100, we have landed. I asked Pentagon Press secretary John Kirby why the u. S. Did not evacuate these americans before its forces left Bagram Airbase in july. They were essentially stopped by the State Department from beginning those evacuations . I wouldnt say that. I dont think its important right now to get into internal deliberations. Our expectation was that the afghani government would stay in place. Nobody could have imagined how quickly that government would have literally just dissipated, almost overnight. There was simply no way to predict that. The pentagon says that 26 Military Transport planes flew out of Kabul Airport yesterday with 1200 afghan evacuees and some americans on board. A sharp reduction of evacuations compared to the 20,000 per day if you days ago, all indicating that the military is focusing now on removing Military Personnel and equipment to meet the president and the Talibans Deadline of 3 30 p. M. Eastern tomorrow. John and of course the big question, jennifer, what happens to those who will undoubtedly be left behind . Jennifer griffin for us to the pentagon, thanks. Sandra . Sandra Thank You. Lets bring in Bill Hemmer. I always say good to see it. It happens sometimes. Good to have you. I want to ask you about this polling. Where do the american people stand in this moment on the full evacuation of afghanistan . And leaving any americans behind . Throw the poll on the screen, u. S. Troops should stay until all americans have been evacuated, 84 say yes. U. S. Troops should stay, until all afghans who aided the u. S. Have been evacuated. 71 say yes. Now look at Party Support for u. S. Troops staying until all americans are evacuated from the ground there. 87 of republicans supported, 86 of democrats. So, bill, what the heck are we doing . Bill its remarkable, when i saw that i couldnt believe it. Its hard to get anyone in this country to agree on anything over 80 . I think what it portends possibly as a longtime political hangover for this White House for this administration and likely for this president. More than 70 of democrats believe we should stay until a certain point where americans and afghans are secure. Now the question becomes, after the departure date tomorrow, what happens with the americans were left behind . And could this sandra 3 29 00 p. M. Eastern tomorrow. Bill listen, we could wake up tomorrow morning, sandra, and they might announce that the taliban has assumed control of the Kabul Airport. Thats a possibility. But those numbers tell me that the american people are paying attention to the story in ways that cannot escape them. Sandra he brought up a moment ago when we were talking of camera, those that set the table with a pint of beer for the missing Service Members. Bill that is happening in bars and cafes across america. Sandra its a beautiful thing, i think you and a granite. Billions of dollars in american weapon into the taliban. Now they have more Black Hawk helicopters in Australia And Theyve released thousands of isis terrorists from prison. You talk about what happens in afghanistan tomorrow after 3 30 p. M. Eastern time, we are also faced with the brutal reality that our threat of terrorism here at home goes up. Bill yeah. I think the initial issue is to make sure that they leave safely. They try to leave the base, and as you read there with jennifer griffin. Lets say we do this safely. We all get out. The handover happens. Its wednesday, the 1st of september. Well, now you have 20 years on, sandra. An enemy you thought was vanquished in 2001 is that, and they are better and stronger and more equipped than they ever were before. In addition, you got this isisk group. Youve got Al Qaeda, and youve got the haqqani network. They reported 8000 to 10000 fighters in that area. In the afghanistan. So what did we create . We have watched now the development of this wicked brew of four different groups. Here, then, becomes the question. What is this Overthehorizon Capability . And will this commander in chief, if he hears about an Asus Meeting and some village in eastern afghanistan, will he take the shot . That is something that we are going to move toward 9 11 and 20 years removed, into october, november, and we are going to think that 20 years of eliminating this Threat Hasnt done it, and that is the reality its going to soak in after tomorrow. Sandra so many of that reality sank in deeply for those of us who watched the Coming Home of those servicemen and women who lost their lives last week, over the weekend. Bill, saw you this morning, great coverage. As you continue covering this week, well see you on americas newsroom. John . John boy, Everything Old is new again. You and bill together. [laughter] it really is an open question as to whats going to happen with everybody who has left, after the u. S. Military pulls out. Can we count on the taliban to allow them once commercial flights financially resume, to leave the country . Sandra and we expect to hear from President Biden half past the hour, but thats going to be a fema coordination update, its going to be virtually held. You never know, they could be some questions that he answers. Otherwise youll be hearing from Jen Psaki a bit later, hes expected to hold that white House Briefing a short time after the president concludes. John he wasnt inclined to take Questions Yesterday when he was talking about tropical Storm Ida, or Hurricane Ida as it was then. Now it is tropical Storm Ida and he said the virtual meeting with a Fema Administrator and local officials in areas impacted by ida. We will bring that to you live in happens. The storm bringing flooding to louisiana and killing at least one person. Residents across the state surveying the damage left behind. And worried about my family. I dont know what to do from here. Just trying to. Just trying to let it all sink in and try to figure things out. John Fox With A Multimedia Journalist Robert Ray is live in Lafitte Louisiana where more than 150 people are in imminent danger after heavy Rain And Storm surge breached a level there. We witnessed you getting blown away by Hurricane Ida yesterday. Hopefully things are little they certainly are. Sunny skies, but dont let that fill you. By me as a flurry of activity here outside of Lafitte Louisiana. It is a Fishing Village and the sheriff briefed us earlier, and theres a few hundred people that decided to stay. So its happening is that our Military Helicopters below and airboats heading out to try and check on people going house to house. We shot some video earlier that shows vehicles moving through some of that water, trying to get themselves out, but the Sheriffs Department is here, National Guard Is On the ground, they are taking boats out, they are checking many of these houses, some of them on stilts, so they are all good. I spoke to one resident who came down here because her parents are actually stuck out there. They have never seen water come up that high in lafitte. They lived 30 years, john sandra, and shes making sure t. She said that they could last for about a week there, even though they have taken water, they are on stilts. But you just see the airboats waiting to come in. I was in the command of the booth earlier watching some of the Jefferson Parish officials look at the maps of the area. This is essentially the bayou, swamps, so they are looking for a way to come through. This incredible amount of Rain And Wind come everybody went for it yesterday. A full force and effect, and looking behind the camera, more vehicles and sounds are coming, and choppers about to buzz us here, john and sandra. Sandra robert, i want to say a big welcome, by The Way, to Fox And Fox are they. You and i worked together use ago in the chicago area. I know you and i know storms, you dont run from them, you manage them. Sort of put this in perspective, what we are seeing on the ground there compared to storms you covered in the past. First of all, Thank You. Whats amazing about what happened over the weekend with ida is a lot of times storms dont create wind and Heavy Rain at the same time. When it came in to the coastline, which is about 50 miles south of here, it almost sort of strengthened. The Eye Wall grew out and it started Whipping Everything Counterclockwise in these bayous down here where many people live. This is culture, life for so many people. Theyre not going to leave. It is what it is. But this has been a very intense storm. I can tell you, covering Hurricane Laura last year in Lake Charles, also very intense. Very similar, that we have to remember, Lake Charles is not as populated as New Orleans. Over A Million people in New Orleans and the surrounding area, and totally out of power right now. And communications almost zero. At t is down, verizon has some service, so thats a good thing. Thats how we are broadcasting out of here and im talking to you. So yeah, this is about as bad as it gets right now as far as the past decade that ive been on the ground for it, guys. John robert, they were hit really hard. Of course a lot of people worried about New Orleans. So for the ladies have appeared to hold up . Indeed, so far. We have to remember and have to be cautious, with the power out, those levees, they are trying to get figure out how to keep the electricity going to keep the levees going and pump the water out. 16 years ago when katrina hit, besides the Gulf Coast of mississippi, everything seemed to be okay in New Orleans, then the levees failed. I Cant Stress enough how much caution is going into whats happening on the ground here, and officials are very aware of what happened 16 years ago, as are residents, john. Sandra robert, what do you expect to see that in the coming hours . Obviously have a lot of folks gathering around you, a lot of unknowns still with The Storm as you mentioned. What happens next . Yeah, sandra, specifically here, what officials are telling us, they are on these boats and the choppers are going house to house making sure everyone is okay. There are minor injuries reported right now but they are going to try to get people who want to come out. These are tough people and some of them wont want to leave. They will stay in those houses with stilts. But yeah, this is a coordinated event here. It seems very, very efficient, at least here in lafitte, louisiana. Up in New Orleans, specifically in that Metro Area of over A Million people, i think the biggest hope is when is that power going to get back on so everyone can start to assess even better. Very few hotels have power, generators went out Last Night, and folks are looking for communication from providers like at t. When you lose comms, thats tough. Then you know youre in for the long haul. Hopefully within the next 48 hours we started to see power come on and communications come back. If that doesnt happen, then we are looking at a whole different sector of events that are going to occur in the coming days and weeks. John down there in the bayou, at least, theyve had a lot of practice with this in recent years. Sandra we are paying for those people. They sure have. Sandra we are paying they get power and praying about what the next couple of hours hold for them. Robert ray, good to have you. Thank you. John thanks, robert. Sandra and by The Way, john, fox weather, hes one of the new Team Members so we are looking forward to that. John glad he didnt blow away yesterday. Sandra the Delta Variant meanwhile pushing hospitalizations to the highest level since winter. Which states have the highest caseload . We will have a Brandnew Update next. John right now we are waiting for President Biden, said to hold a meeting with fema and local officials in areas impacted by ida. We will bring that to you live when it happens. Stay with us. We did it again. Verizon has been named americas most reliable network by rootmetrics. And our customers rated us 1 for Network Quality in america according to j. D. Power. 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Ive got this until you get back. Better parents. And better friends. No no thats why comcast works around the clock constantly improving americas largest gigspeed broadband network. And just doubled the capacity here. How do things look on your end . Perfect because were building a better network every single day. John well, the winds in New Orleans have died down enough for us to get a drone up in the air, and we can see some of the damage that was brought by Hurricane Ida as that northeast section of The Storm blew through New Orleans. 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina came through. I was in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and we saw some damage like that, which is expected when the winds reach above 130140 miles an hour. You can see theres one building totally down, another one, this is new City Hall, we are told. But of course the big damage from Hurricane Katrina was when the levees broke, as we were talking earlier with robert ray. The pumps failed because they got submerged in water and the entire city became the bowl that everybody feared. So far they have escaped that bullet in New Orleans so it looks like its just when damage for the moment, but The Storm continues to turn on through the states above into the east of louisiana, causing more havoc, and of course we dont know the extent of the worst of the damage done in places like Port For , morgan city, other placeslike. Even Baton Rouge, as The Storm moved on up to the state. We would keep you updated on the latest on The Storm as it has now become a tropical depression and turns inward and up toward the midatlantic states. Sandra if we could stay on that for a minute, its remarkable to think about how far weve come with the Hurricane And Storm coverage with these drones. Weve been using the Drone Images a lot for Fox News exclusively done at the border and here you have an example, another example, of how this further tells the story of the damage on the ground during The Storms. It is remarkable, as we show you this live Drone Image of the damage on the ground they. Not only is this good obviously for the Storytelling Aspect of this, the informational aspect of this, but obviously the Rescue Aspect of this if indeed there were roof rescues needed, et cetera. At the hands of law enforcement, the National Guard can use these drones. It is remarkable how far we have come. Wright, john . When you reference back to the days of katrina. John everything was groundlevel in katrina, or Water Level in katrina. See these aerial shots really does add a new perspective to it. Speed absolutely. Meanwhile, the educational department is opening up a civil Rights Investigation in five states that banned mass mandates for schools. The secretary said this was possibility a few weeks ago. These are the states that Band Mass Mandates and schools. John . John now that the rescue flights from kabul are coming to an end, many are left wondering why u. S. Troops abandoned Bagram Air base so soon. Now President Biden is apparently putting some of the responsibly on his generals. Michael hanlon is a Senior Fellow at the brookings institution, the author of The Art Of War in the age of peace. We heard Jake Sullivan over the weekend, putting at least some of the bring on the military for bagram being close, saying that they used kabul rather than bagram. But they didnt have much of a choice because President Biden did not allow them to put enough forces there to keep Bagram Open and to have Hamid Karzai operating, as well. I think you are right to think about the requirements for patrolling and otherwise protecting a large base like bagram on your own. We used to think about this back in the day on various Research Trips to afghanistan, trying to help planners think through, if you had this much of a presence in this province of afghanistan, will it be the smallest way to do it . Ultimately he would dominic boiled down, at least in large part, to the security of the base. And the kind of numbers i remember people proposing where in the range of 1000 to 1500 per base. It doesnt have to be all american personnel in uniform but it was historically largely in american operation. There werent a lot of nato troops. At least he could really make a greater call and then at that point. And contractors can help some, but things like patrolling, you want it done by people in uniform. So that kind of number, just for bagram alone, would perhaps push up the numbers up where President Biden was going to have them. John is the deadline was beginning to wind toward a close on saturday, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was on with judge jeanine. He said this. Bagram was a great decoration platform, it has multiple runways, its out in the middle of nowhere, and you can take that Airbase Tonight if you wanted to. If we had any will in the White House militarily we could take Bagram Airbase. John one of the things said is that it is out in the middle of nowhere, and if youre trying to evacuate people from kabul, which is the better place . Certainly hamid Karzai Airport is easier for residents of kabul to get to. Bagram is, as i recall, something in the vicinity of 20 miles away. There are a lot of vehicles in afghanistan and its a poor country but people get around in various ways. I think a lot of the question is what the taliban would have done as their next step, and i dont suggest that u. S. Policy should be dictated by concerns or fears about the taliban, but at this juncture i just dont think it is within the cards. Im going to guess President Bidens withdrawal, but i dont think we will rethink that approach. I am thinking about using leverage, both carrots and sticks, to get them to moderate their behavior including to let people go in the future, even ones that we have pulled out, the u. S. Troop presence. Thats where my thinking has gone because i think that will be the big challenge going forward. Not to mention how they treat 20 Million afghan women and millions of and using our access to financial holdings, maybe someday diplomatic recognition depending on how they behave, and also the threat of force if they do things that bring them into contact with operational planning for terrorism. That is where the conversation, i think, needs to go realistically. John we learn from the Washington Post that the taliban said to the united states, do you want to take over security of kabul and the airport or do you just want to do the airport . And apparently the u. S. Said and it seems to be backed up by the Chief Of Staff at the White House the u. S. Said no, you take care of security in kabul and we will handle the airport. Did we have enough people there to be able to secure a kabul and the airport . If we could have secured kabul as well as airport, might that have led to a more orderly withdrawal . The first question you posed is really important, because there are various metrics people use for how many forces you need. But we go back to the David Pretorius Counter edges dominic Insurgency Manual , that we need if they have 5 Million people, you would have needed more than 100,000 american troops to secure kabul. Once he had lost the afghan army and police, however imperfect, however mediocre, they were the ones with the checkpoints, they were the ones providing that first and second and third parameters of defense. Once we lost them, once they melted away, i think the game was over, if you will. So my main criticism of President Biden is still the April Decision to withdrawal, which i consider unnecessary. A not so much what happened in august. Because as tragic as it has been, we sort of lost control of bad things happening once we decided to pull out. To me that was the fundamental choice. John we well see how things go in the next 24 hours. Thank you for joining us. Sandra . Sandra President Biden set to meet virtually with the Fema Administrator and local officials in areas badly impacted by ida. We will take you there when that virtual event happens. That should be just a few moments for now. John . John Coming Up next, sandra, a live rePort For mississippi, the threat there as ida continues to turn on. Stay with us. To rates are so low, youll jump for joy. Here, better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. Click or call for a lower Auto Rate today. Ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoo hoo ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. Aaaand Will John some more aerialfootagn New Orleans. You can see that a Building Collapse onto the back of the car and into the italian pie restaurant, as well. This is the area near City Hall, not too far from the superdome. Poydras street is the main northsouth street there. When you take a look at this, clearly this is obviously it Wind Damage as a party would happened last time, battered by a hurricane which was all water damage. Very often when damage is easier to clean up, but it certainly causes its own headaches come as well. Sandra for anybody whos ever been into the French Quarter in New Orleans, this is southwest of there. As you said, the City Hall area. The original italian pie, as he said, on Poydras Street. You are just talking a few blocks off the Mississippi River, one of the main Business Districts of the new Orleans Area, john. And you are also reminded, and im reminded you know, i continue to get updates from my friends on the ground there. As you know, i went to school in louisiana and spent a lot of time in New Orleans. I just got another update from a friend who said theyve safely evacuated ahead of The Storm. So did her parents. They got their kids out of Harms Way, but they are starting to get worried about the damage their homes. In some cases it has gone pretty far. And it reminds you that a lot of people dont know the damage or the extent of the damage to their homes there because theyve left. And they dont see that damage until they return, in some cases days or weeks later, john. Its a harsh reminder of just how brutal zinsser some for some of the residence there. John so we get the exact geographic luck on this, this is Poydras Street and South Rampart paid very close to City Hall. A friend of mine, god bless him, who is over in the uptown area, was quarantining at home because he caught covid, and in the hurricane came in. His family is all away, but he was there Hunkering Down at home quarantining because hes got covid. But apparently hes doing all right last time time we checked. Talks whether multimedia journalist, live on the ground. Hes at the very latest. What is it looking like they are, will . The sunshine is a welcome sight after nearly 19 hours of this inundation of sustained Wind And Rain that has pounded this region, as well, as a result of ida. Its leaving seems like thIs One. This is a quiet Neighborhood Street complete the underwater. You Cant Pass through here. A cartwright in the distance but it stalled out. This continues a blocks in either direction. Got back from slidell about 30 minutes away from here and i will show you the video, theres active what a risk is happening right now. Communication is very difficult. We had to get this video and bring it to a place where we could bring it to you because there is no Cell Phone Communication at all. What neighbors are doing is getting out in the street and finding ways to help each other. There are countless trees down there, they are pulling out their boats and going doortodoor, rescuing people who need to get out of rising water in slidell, as well. Too many trees to count that are down, even the Police Chief they are talking about how difficult it is to even communicate right now. This certainly hampering their efforts. Thats what we are seeing, starting from Coastal Mississippi where we have been here, biloxi and gulfport, thousands of Power Outages come even Tornado Damage being assessed today. As he moved closer to Slidell And New Orleans the picture gets even more difficult to see, guys. John still not as bad i would think as he He Saw during katrina. Not at all. Sandra you are talking to be about an Hour Trip or so moving east from slidell louisiana. How would you compare the damage you saw . Obviously where you are right now, pass christian, you are completely surrounded by water there. They are showing Drone Images of the new Orleans Area as we are trying to get a first look at just how bad things are there. But thats obviously quite a Bit West of where you are standing. Yeah, and weve spent some time out Surveying Damage here in gulfport and even over to biloxi. After katrina there was a lot of infrastructure changes around here. The Ground Level was raised in many cases, lots of fortifying of buildings, and that withstood pretty well, especially on the coastal front. Highway 90 closer a while, we are about four blocks from that, seeing some of the flooding situation. You are right, moving towards New Orleans, its a much different situation. Not to minimize what we are seeing here because there is certainly damage here. But as you move toward that powerful core, it suddenly changes. John have you had any reports from Port Fourchon, places like that . You can imagine there are lots of logistical challenges to get to that. We are still trying to find the best methods in, but as soon as we have those details, we will absolutely do it. Sandra continue to bring us the latest from there, as we do have a live look at slidell, louisiana. Or perhaps this is video from earlier. As we continue to bring our viewers images from the ground there. Trees down, power out, so many still in Harms Way as we start to get a first look at the damage from The Storm. That is a live Drone Image on the left side of your screen there. Poydras and South Rampart street, sort of the Business District they are not far from City Hall. As you can see, complete devastation. That Is One of two of those restaurants, john, that weve been showing. One of the originals. Every time we have these storms, something they can say has survived many hurricanes or storms passed, something goes by The Wayside and its just a horrible look at the destruction there. John im interested to know how dean blanchard, the Shrimp King of Grand Isle, whether this. Hes got a House On Grand Isle that is built like a bunker on stilts. Sandra all the houses there are. [laughs] john his is built like a tank, a colleague of mine was with him during a category three hurricane when it came through some time after katrina. The entire island was under 8 feet of water and they were still doing fine. Hopefully he did over at this time around, too. Sandra we will continue watching these live pictures, and meanwhile a Life Picture at the White House. Secretary of state antony blinken, with just under 24 hours to go now until the u. S. Withdraws the deadline imposed by jill biden, Nathan Sayles will join us. Hes a former ambassador at large and served as Counterterrorism Coordinator at the State Department from 2017 to this year. The administration, obviously dealing with ida, The Storm, some really badly hit areas. We know the president is getting briefed on this and hes expected to show soon from the White House, a meeting with fema to give an update on where things stand. Meanwhile there watching the situation in afghanistan and it does not look good. We are just over 24 hours now from this deadline. What happens in the hours to come . We are left wondering, as we talked to Bill Hemmer at the top of the hour, about the unknown once that deadline passes. Sandra, i think you are exactly right. Its become clear that we are going to be leading american citizens behind. Lets be clear about who is responsive for that. Our troops at the Front Line and our diplomats on the Front Lines are doing really extraordinary work to bring him as many americans as they can, but the White House has really put them in an impossible position by setting and refusing to be consider this arbitrary August 31st deadline. So now we are hearing from the White House that there could be about 300 americans who are still seeking to get out. I think the number has to be substantially higher than that. We could be looking at thousands more americans have no way of Making Contact with the State Department and requesting assistance in getting out. Unfortunately with this deadline that the White House is insisting upon, we are going to be leaving some american citizens in Harms Way. Sandra real quick, i will play something from Secretary Blinken yesterday, as we got the Twominute Warning from the White House and the update on the ground in louisiana. Real quick first. In terms of having an on the ground diplomatic presence september 1st, thats not likely to happen. But what is going to happen is that our commitment to continue to help people leave afghanistan who want to leave, and who are not out by september 1st, that and doers. Sandra we will hear from Secretary Blinken, we are told, later on. Possibly 5 00. Its been delayed a few times. Your quick thoughts ahead of president and the White House . The concern is that they will use these american citizens who are still there as leverage to extract diplomatic and other concessions from the united states. We need to be very clear. Getting our people home is nonnegotiable. We are not even going to talk about things like Sanctions Relief or access to frozen funds or international recognition until every last american gets out of Harms Way. Harris all right. We are told the president is walking out. Nathan, really appreciate your time this afternoon. Keep us posted to the White House now we will get an update from the president. President biden good afternoon, everybody. We are waiting for a few more people to get on, but well get started if thats okay with you all. Thank you. The Fema Director Is On, and i am here with my Senior Advisor who knows louisiana very well. What we are going to do is make a Brief Statement and then go through and tell you what we are doing, but then hear from All Of You, if thats okay. I know you are busy as the devil. I know youve got a lot to manage in your states, but the fact is that i want to hear from you and we both wanted to hear from you. We know Hurricane Ida had the potential to cause massive, massive damage, and thats exactly what we saw. We already know theres been at least one confirmed death and that number is likely to grow. Weve got A Million people in louisiana without power, and for a time, ida because the Mississippi River to literally change its direction. In some folks are still dealing with the Storm Surge and flash flooding. And there are roads that are impassable due to debris and downed Power Lines, and we need people to continue to Shelter In place if it is safe for them to do so. For those who have lost their homes, states working the American Red Cross of already opened 50 shelters in affected areas across the Gulf Coast. We have already begun the search and efforts and we get soaks out there who need assistance. And we are doing the best we can. More than 5,000 members of the National Guard have been activated from louisiana, mississippi, alabama, and texas to support Search And Rescue, and recovery efforts. Fema is prepositioned, literally, millions of meals and liters of water. They are already prepositioned, as well as other resources in the immediate area. We have deployed more than 200 generators and we have already moved into the region. Theyve been moved in ahead of time. And the administrator and her team at fema is working on getting more of those into the area. We are in close contact with local providers to see what they need. They are all private providers. We dont control that but we are doing all we can to minimize the amount of time its going to take to get power back up for everyone in the region. We have been working with the electric sector throughout the night and all Day Today to assess and understand the full extent of the damage. To accelerate the process, i have asked the federal Aviation Administration to work today with Louisiana And Mississippi electric companies to authorize the use of surveillance drones to assess Idas Damage to energy infrastructure. While ensuring those flights do not disrupt aerial Search And Rescue operations. And i have also asked the pentagon and the department of Homeland Security to immediately make available any Satellite Imagery that can assist in assessing the damage in your states and cities and parishes. There will be Restoration Work including prioritizing getting Transmission Lines into New Orleans and get them back up and running. A lot of them have been taken down. More than 25,000 Debris Crews and lineman are rolling into support you, some are prepositioned and close and are hopefully underway. But we need to be prepared and we are about as prepared as we could be for the early stage of this. There is a lot more to do. We also know a lot of people lost their cell phone service. It is a particular Carrier Tower that is down or damage. This morning the federal Communications Commission has initiated their cooperative framework agreement. That allows customers on one provider to go to another provider if that provider is down. So it allows customers to use roaming axis carriers, to any of the carriers up and running. That means you should be able to get a signal no matter who your carrier was or is. The main thing we want to make clear to all you as we are providing any help that you are going to need, so as i said, i have got my Senior Advisor here with me. We all know him, he is a New Orleans native, a congressman, was a Congressman In Louisiana Second District for ten years. He knows the area, he knows the people, and people who have been affected by ida paid he knows how to get things done in government. While fema is our lead for on the ground response, if there is something you need, that needs my attention, cedric is her direct line. The direct line in the white House Doubt this recovery, and i mean that. Whatever you need, go to cedric, he will get to me and we will get you what we need if we can. People of louisiana and miss it mississippi are resilient, but his moment like these we can see the power of government respondo the needs of the people if the government is prepared and if they respond. That is our job if we work together. Folks get knocked down, we are there to help you get back on your feet. The most important element, though, is coordinating all the branches of governments. State, local, and federal. That is what we are trying to make sure we are doing before this hurricane hit. Thats why weve begun working together, we are going to stand with you and the people of the gulf as long as it takes for you to recover. So im not going to turn this over to John Bel Edwards of louisiana, give us your assessment of what you have and what you out there. Tell me what youre hearing and what your team on the ground, and any needs that we havent gotten to you. Thank you very much, mr. President. We couldnt have picked a better person then cedric. First of all let me Thank You for signing my request for a prelandfill declaration, and Last Night signing the major disaster declaration. Thats going to be very helpful. Hurricane ida came on shore with everything that was advertised. The surge, The Rain, the wind. The good news first is that all of our Levee Systems, particularly our federal Levee Systems and Risk Reduction systems become a performed magnificently. They were not overtopped, none of them were breached. Even our Levee Systems that were paid for with state and local funding performed extremely well. It would be a different story altogether had any of those Levee Systems failed. Having said that, the damage is still catastrophic. But it was primarily winddriven, but we know there are some areas that received tremendous rainfall, as well. But we are going to be dealing with this damage for quite a while. You mentioned, that is critical for us. It is really A Million homes and businesses. My best guess is getting close to 2 Million people without electricity right now. And of course we are trying to prioritize the restorations so that our hospitals come back up first. All the generator powers, generators typically fail after some period of time, so we want to get them back up first in the meantime we already have the Corps Of Engineers on the ground identifying so that cho should have a failure here before is restored, will be able to switch. They are working extremely hard on that. And we have fema embedded with us here since before The Storm. The truth of the matter is they have been since i became governor. They havent left because of one Disaster Or Emergency after another. But they are doing really well. We look forward to visiting with administrator criswell, this will be a long haul. We know we will need assistance with the housing program, we are putting together preliminary information this week that can potentially drive and appropriation. We will work through Cedric Richmond on that, mr. President , to make sure we can get a Program Up and running just as soon as possible. But i want to finish it through the most important thing. We are still in Life Saving Mode here during Search And Rescue. The roads, the highways into the most affected areas were completely clogged with downed Power Lines, trees. We are making really good progress. We actually started our ground Search And Rescue this morning at daylight. We dispatched those forces. And by The Way, we already had Search And Rescue teams from 16 states in louisiana as of yesterday. They started moving to the affected areas at 3 00 this morning, and at 6 00 they were actually doing Surgeon Rescues from 911 calls that came in overnight. They could be responded to. By 6 00 this morning we actually were doing rescues out of the air, as well. The last thing i want to say is the very first rescues occurred at a hospital in galiano by the u. S. Coast guard because they were able to fly before others could, and they are able to move about seven patients from hospital down there. You probably saw the hospital that had the roof just completely taken off yesterday. Your Coast Guard rescued and relocated those patients first thing this morning and we are very appreciative of that. President biden Thank You. We worked real hard for you to get the Search And Rescue teams in place, but you say they have been able to respond . In a timely way . Yes, sir. I cant tell you they are everywhere we want them, but they started responding first thing this morning. In those 16 teams, that doesnt include the National Guard or the officers here. You know, ive got all 5,000 of my National Guardsmen activated. We are going to end up with about 5,000 more coming in from out of state to the request. And one of the reasons this is important is it for 2400 of our soldiers from the Infantry Combat Team deployed to the middle east. So they are going to have the Emac Request i think as early as tomorrow. We are going to have additional soldiers coming from National Guards from sister states, and thats going to be very helpful, as well. President biden well, good. Look, if Theres Anything else you need, you know, just call. Youve got the team at the table there, a lot of them. So just holler. Now, cedric who are we going to next . The governor. President biden i understand you are not on video but you are on the telephone. Fire away. Thank you, mr. President. When we spoke on friday you assured me that when they asked for the Preland Fall Declaration you would immediately sign it, and you did exactly that, and i want to Thank You for doing so. We are in a bit of a different position right now obviously then our friends in louisiana. The eye of The Storm is currently west of jackson, so we probably have between 18 and 22 more hours of the eye of The Storm being in the state of mississippi. We also have, because it is such a large storm, our largest threat in terms of Tornado Activity still remains a long coastline and the counties just north of there. The storm, which really is challenging, has slowed down to about 8 miles an hour. So thats the reason they been saying say for so long, but which leads to more rainfall. The Bad News is we are going to get more rainfall than we maybe originally anticipated. The good news is that, because it is moving so slow, the Wind Speeds have not reached where we thought they would be in the 6575mileanhour Range in central mississippi. Its really closer to 3040. It is still providing significant challenges but not to the extent it otherwise could have been. Because of that, we know that our greatest threats here in mississippi are with respect to rising Water And Power outages. The storm has been in the state for about 810 hours now. Weve got 135,000 plus mississippi dwellings that have not and cannot receive power right now. We are working on that, but we anticipate the number to significantly increase over the next 20 hours as The Storm continues to move north. We have determined in meeting with our team, mr. President , as well as Security Met Fema earlier today, that the Search And Rescue teams from fema and our state are not currently needed in our state. Believe our state and local access can meet the needs, so we have encouraged our female counterparts to release those individuals over to louisiana to help with those Surgeon Rescues i have directed, as we progress over the next 810 hours, he has reached out to his counterpart in louisiana and will be Sending Men And Women From Uniformed To Mississippi to help in louisiana, because that is who they are. So we have got, again, about 20 hours ahead of us of wind and lots and lots of rain, but all things considered, because The Storm slowed up so considerably, we are seeing more rain and more water but a lot less wind, which is certainly helpful. President biden will thanks an awful lot, gov. Again, thanks for your generosity in sending some of those Search And Rescue teams louisiana. His Mayor Cantrell on . Are you on . I dont think she was able to get connected. I dont think so, mr. President. But we have cynthia lee sheng, the Parish President from Jefferson Parish, which includes places that were hard hit. President biden you are hit, were new . We wear. Thank you. We have not had contact with Grand Isle. You know the mayor, i talked with him yesterday evening. He thought 40 people were on the island, couldnt get them off, including firefighters. We have not had contact with them since yesterday. Im told that the mayor is in galliano and i heard he was on a helicopter with State Police to get him to the island. Its very hard to not have any word from that island and the people on it since that time. In the feet, the lot it was very high to the roofs of houses. Our first responder the sheriff, and our firefighters, louisiana National Guard, some Coast Guard, are they are doing. They are having to get votes in it out. We have i believe the state is going to coordinate for Pick Up and move them to alexandria, is my understanding. Of course our systems are down, we have no electricity, no communication. Our Water Systems are down, they are losing pressure. We had to do a boil water advisory. Our sewer system, as you know, is based on electricity, so that will be a Hygiene Problem and may have back up. We are encouraging residents who are out of the area to stay out because we do not have the modern amenities to bring them back home, and the people inside, we are going to have to take care of them. But some of the people here who stayed during The Storm, and the next couple of days they may want to get out and it might be the best idea for them to get out, because its going to be a difficult life for quite some time. President biden Thank You, madam president. Thank you. President biden cedric, what about the oil . Governor, the Parish President to talk about that. The president is inquiring about the Oil Ports down in Port Fourchon and where we are there. I personally do not have eyes in that situation, so the visual i get is, if i see something on the national john we seem to have lost communication, we will see if we can get it back. But you had the story they are, the good news is from John Bel Edwards, the governor of louisiana, that all the levees, including the new federal levees rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, and the state constructed levee for us, have held so far. The big problem of course is Wind Damage, but you heard others talking up situation in lafitte, the water was up to the roof at one point, and still no word on points further south of there, like the big Oil Port of Port For strong Port Fourchon and Grand Isle. I recall a storm with much less power on thIs One that the water was about 10 feet deep on Grand Isle, so you can imagine it was even shorter than that. Sandra news from John Bel Edwards, he predicts nearly 2 Million in his state are now without power. He says that includes homes and businesses, john. So youre talking about doubling in the last few hours or so as far as estimates of who is directly impacted by this. Mike tobin is standing by in New Orleans for us. We are talking about a lot of people affected by this. And John Bel Edwards went on to further make a dire Warning Today suggesting that the Death Toll could go up considerably. His words. 5,000 troops deployed to the Gulf Area now, shelterinplace orders for residents in the Gulf Coast they are, shelters have opened. It is quite a detailed and situation. What can you tell us from the ground . It is still going to take a while to get to some of those hardhit areas, but as far as looking on New Orleans, the damage looks pretty typical from what we see after hurricane. We see behind me as a bunch of Roofing Material that was pulled off during the course of The Storm, a lot of trees snapped and light posts knocked over. But the big impact is what you cant see and what you are talking about. No one in New Orleans has power right now. Virtually no one across the state has power. That is a big impact that will take a long time to recover from. But the levees stood up to ida. Major flooding is not an issue. One thing that is clear is that The Storm was not katrina. Its pretty intense. A lot of wicked winds. Luckily no flooding. That is the main difference between The Storm and katrina. This is a lot of Wind Damage and katrina was more flood. Is a different picture outside the Levee System of New Orleans. Major flooding in Grand Isle and Port Fourchon where ida came ashore. A bridge became impassable leading people trapped on the other side of the bridge. Efforts are underway right now to get to those people and maybe as many as 300 or 450 is estimated by the mayor. In slidell, louisiana, more than a dozen people needed rescue including four people trapped on the roof by flood waters. Governor John Bel Edwards attempted to assure people that rescuers are trying to get to them. Please know that we have thousands of people out right now with high water vehicles and boats who are doing surgeon rescue. We have dozens of helicopters up, and that is just from the stateside. We know that all of the local first responders are performing heroically, as well. And they get freed up they will start bridge searching. We know right now the only one person he was killed by The Storm, and that is a man he was sleeping in his house, or he was in his house, anyway, when a tree came crashing through. When we start the search as well see if the number changes. Hopefully it doesnt. Sandra, back to you. The eight might, youre giving us a look at the back on there as seen scenes pop up all over New Orleans of a lot of destruction. As far as people on the ground, what are you seeing right there . How many people are able to to get out and stay out . s i think you lost connection with mike. Well get back to him for an update shortly if we can reestablish connection. The Theme Update we were getting a few moments ago with the governors calling in for mississippi, louisiana, Gisela President Situation on the ground for these residents as they continue to battle really tough conditions. So we just dont know what happens next, when they get an idea of how many people are stuck or stranded perhaps in their homes, and now in the case of louisiana nearly 2 Million without power. John obviously in a really hardhit areas that will be a lot of tough times ahead. In the bigger cities like New Orleans, its going to be getting by without power for a while now. Lets bring in some who artists sheltering with their 2yearold child. What was it like writing out the Hurricane Yesterday . Its interesting to be here. You dont want to leave with a 2yearold, and things are going to sit in how many hours of traffic. So we decided the best plan was to Shelter In place. The wind got pretty intense. Unfortunately on our block we dont have some of those large old beautiful Oak And Cypress trees that youre showing in camera right now. But we walked the block this morning and saw that a lot of those trees had come down and had taken Power Lines and Power Poles with them. And significant damage to houses nearby. But we were comfortable that, given where we were and the state of our particular street, being so close, that we might have gotten lucky. And we were very lucky not to have significant damage to the house, and we were lucky to have put in a generator just a couple weeks ago that kept at least half of our house powered, which was a young kid was important. Sandra thats good timing. John good decision. Sandra schuyler, was it like . And not only do you have generators, you have some power at least in your house, access to the internet. You are dialing in with us right now. Was it like for you and how did your 2yearold make it through this . It mustve been scary. Shes been watching a lot of tv. Were just trying to keep her distracted and occupied, lots of snacks and Daniel Tiger and other Tv Shows to keep her distracted. We have to use different sleep arrangements, like we said, we only have half of the house powered, so we had to do A Little Bit of Slumber Party Last Night. But i think hes doing okay. The wind and The Rain Last Night was really intense, but we are really lucky and fortunate and are so many people who are not. Our prayers and thoughts are out to everybody. John i wanted to ask you just A Little Bit more about that. I have covered so many hurricanes in my career that i dont care if i cover another one and some of them very powerful, some of them small ones. I always talk to people who ride out The Storms. I remember my first hurricane, hugo, and charleston. I talked to people saying in the home and they said they would have a hurricane party. I saw them the next day and they said they were hidden in a closet all night long screaming. And i talked to other people had written them out and said not much problem. On that scale, where did you folks come through it Last Night . In the middle. In the beginning we didnt know what we were going to be hit with. We are really fortunate that we had the generator and we were relying on that, and it came through. Luckily we havent had any significant damage to her house and to our street. But it is that you are taking a risk when you stay, and we were fortunate and others were not. Sandra you think about it, i just heard from another friend of mine from the state of louisiana i went to school down there and she reminded me that kids are starting back to school. There is so great a fear, hopefully it would be to get through this and survives and you get going again, but this destruction could have affected a lot of the schools. And shes thinking, oh, dear, after covid are we going to be homeschooling again . You look at the destruction, we could find out a lot of the schools were affected, as well. We were about to start our daughter in preschool on monday. Today. Today. So we are now figuring that it could be weeks before power is restored in the City And Staff to help the School Function is back. Because even when it may be safe to come back in town, if Others Cant get back and live comfortably in their homes or go Grocery Shopping or do little things we take for granted, the other things that are important to keep your life operational, like offices and schools, how can they get back to work . So we are just hoping that the City And State and federal government put there might behind getting the power back up and saving whoever is in Harms Way right now so we can get back to some sense of normalcy here, albeit in the middle of the pendant, and the heat of the New Orleans summer. John schuyler, let me ask you this question, because women tend to be the more pragmatic and practical members of a relationship. [laughs] we understand its been devastating damage to the infrastructure when it comes to electricity. Sewage pumping stations dont have enough power, so they could be potential Health Hazards from that. How long before he pulled the plug and say lets go visit family somewhere else in the country . We been having that discussion actually since Last Night. We are just taking it day by day right now, we are waiting to see how long the power might be out, if its going to be days or weeks or maybe even months. We are just taking it day by day and well see what our next steps are. We are fortunate that we have a generator and well be okay for a few days we need to. But having a toddler, were just going to take it day by day for right now and see if we can get to family or somewhere else. Sandra naturally try to think of everything, because he just dont know whats coming your way and you dont know how bad it is. Its a tough position to be in. Lee, i would ask you, have you heard from Work Colleagues or friends or neighbors, if anybody is stuck in their homes or had any major destruction or they are trying to get out . Im sure you try to at least catch up with some people around you so far. Yeah, its an interesting dynamic, because we have friends that have toddlers like us that left and were going to go canvas some of the neighborhoods to tell them the situation in the house. Our Daughters Nanny actually lives in a place that was hit really hard. Severe tend to get in touch with her for several hours after being in touch with her overnight. We finally made contact with someone who told us she was okay with her daughter and her husband and then we finally made contact with her, as well. Thats the one person we were probably most concerned about. I know weve got friends in Jefferson Parish where i work that are without power and internet. So again, we are fortunate being up in the uptown new Orleans Area with a generator, and they are so many others that are not, so we have tried to open the door and say, if you need somewhere to come get air conditioning, charge your phone, and take a breath, come on over. John ive got a friend who lived not far from you, i havent been able to get in touch with him, hopefully he is all right. Sandra we wish the absolute best for you, we are praying for you. Please take care and take care of that little baby girl. John best wishes, folks. Sandra life to the White House, Jen Psaki starting everything. Secretary psaki today, as He Saw, the president and his Homeland Security team continue to monitor the impact of Hurricane Ida, something he was monitoring through the course of the weekend. This was an extremely large and powerful hurricane and, as expected, catastrophic damage in a number of areas along the Gulf Coast. 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 Community response effort. We are creating that State And Government officials at every step of The Way. Todays efforts begin in the Gulf Coast where conditions allow on the ground. We understand that responders a focus 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 the latest accounts suggest that more than 1 Million customers are without electricity. Restoring munications where they are down, and providing emergency food, water, and shelter to those in need. In parts of louisiana include New Orleans, Energy Companies have reported catastrophic damage to their Transmission Systems and we dont yet know how long this will take for the local utilities to repair, but clearly thats a big priority for everyone involved. To 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 spoke with governors and mayors from impacted communities and he was at femas national Response Coronation 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 proved that she may have seen this, but Last Night it was an Emergency Declaration for louisiana which allows individuals in impacted areas to apply for assistance. He also approved a predisaster Emergency Declaration for mississippi to authorize an Emergency Preparation and protective measures and direct federal assistance. I just want to give you a quick overview to the federal resources supporting efforts now, many of which Wear Preposition before The Storm. Fema is working with its federal, state, and local partners as well as nongovernmental agencies to support areas of need. Meals, water, and generators to assist states with impact from The Storm. More than 3600 fema employees are deployed to alabama, florida, georgia, louisiana, mississippi, and texas, and are ready to provide additional support is needed. More than 3. 4 million meals, leaders of water, more than 35,700 tarps and some generators. Several Fema Incident Management Assistant Teams and 17 urban Search And Rescue teams have been activated along with Debris Subject Matter experts. The abutment of Health And Human Services is deploying a 250bed 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 Aircrafts to assist with rescue efforts. Shelters are open in affected areas throughout the Gulf Coast across impacted states and their implementing steps to prevent the spread of covid19. Covid19. The National Guard is also activated, more than 50100 personnel in Louisiana And Mississippi, texas, and alabama, to support response efforts. In the Army Corps of engineers has activated Planning And Response teams for temporary roofing and 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 continued to be a threat, which will likely result in additional downed trees and Power Outages as The Storm moves northeast. And ida will continue to produce Heavy Rainfall, and it remains a threat. Finally, our secretary of Homeland Security and Fema Administrator criswell Will Travel to Baton Rouge on Tuesday Morning and meet the governor to survey damage. The Fema Administrator will also travel to jackson, mississippi, that evening on wednesday shall meet with the governor. The last update i wanted to provide to All Of You, as part of our Crossgovernment Approach to preventing evictions, Today Attorney general Merrick Garland is calling on the entire legal community to take legal action to help prevent unnecessary evictions during this public health emergency. The Attorney General Call To Action asks major law firms, Law School students, and individual lawyers to work with courts and legal Service Providers and nonprofits to ensure access to justice for vulnerable tenants. So for over 40 major Law School deans including from harvard, yale, stanford, columbia, howard, ucla, and more have committed their students and clinics to help prevent evictions. And members of several legal organizations and projects have joined us for immediate action. Military nationwide Emergency Rental System Program Training held by the alliance. Whether you kick us off . Reporter as of yesterday there were about 300 u. S. Citizens before the deadline. You have an update on the number . Are still looking at 300 waiting to get out . Is a down to 150, down to zero . Secretary psaki i know my Seat Apartment colleagues will have a more specific uptodate number, but let me give you an update of where things stand at this point. Those who self identified as americans in afghanistan considered 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 continues and we have been providing, as you know, regular updates to All Of You on evacuations. The initial assessment, if we go back to august 14th, is that there were fewer than 6,000 americans in afghanistan he wanted to get out. As we conveyed at the time, we knew that there could be an option, one, people who had registered had already departed, or that people who had registered had not deregistered, or that there were additional people who came forward. We believe there is still a small number. I understand youre asking for the exact number who remain. We are trying to determine exactly how many, we are going to manifest in our Calling And Texting and well have a concrete number for you as soon as possible. Part of the challenge is that there are longtime residents of afghanistan, as he talked about 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, many instances, thats because they have many Family Members there, but they have a range of reasons and we have been working with them to assess that. Reporter one other question on afghanistan. In light of tomorrow, what can you tell us about what the president will do tomorrow . How will he mark this moment . Should the public expect to hear from him tomorrow at some point . Secretary psaki without getting into specific operational details i know youre not asking me that, but just too precious i think you all can expect, and the american public can expect, to hear fromm in the coming days. I dont have specific details at this point in time. Go ahead. Reporter President Biden told me, quote, i do not divert my decision to withdraw from afghanistan. After watching, is that still his position cannot does he not regret the manner in which the withdrawal was conducted . Secretary psaki first i would say that the men and women who gave their lives, the president intended to either Service And Sacrifice and had the opportunity to meet a number of the Family Members yesterday. We cant that doesnt take the place of all the work that has been done to evacuate people, but i will tell you something that has been said time and time again by the brave men and women of the military who are leading this effort. These 13 individuals sacrificed their lives to save Tens Of Thousands of people, and that is something that should be honored, should be valued, and we will continue to look for ways to do that. Reporter after meeting with the families of the fallen Service Members, he still sticks by his decision . He doesnt regret at all how its played out in the last couple of weeks . Secretary psaki of course for any president , as i said last week, a day or a week where you lose 13 Service Members is the worst day or the worst week of your presidency. And that remains the case. Yesterday, and ive seen him since he of course went to dover yesterday, he is of course deeply impacted. He knows firsthand that there is nothing you can say to a family member. Theres nothing you can say to someone who loses a child that is going to fill the Black Hole that remains. If you take a step back beyond yesterday, the president stands by his decision to bring our men and women home from afghanistan, because if he had not, his view and the view of many experts in military out there as we would have spent tens of thousand, potentially, or thousands more troops, back into Harms Way, risking more lives and more people to fight a war the afghans were not willing to fight themselves. Nothing has changed in that regard. Reporter how is that interaction between the president and those Families Yesterday . Secretary psaki im obviously not going to speak to a private conversation between the president and the parents of Service Members who lost their lives saving others. He was grateful to be there with the Families Yesterday, and to honor both the heroic service and incredible sacrifice of their sons and daughters. While his son did not lose his life directly in combat as they did, or directly at the hands of a terrorist, as these families did, he knows, as i just said, firsthand that there is nothing you can say, nothing you can convey, to ease the pain and to ease what all these families are going through. But he was honored to be there yesterday and to be able to spend some time with the families. Go ahead. Reporter one other question. Is it apples to apples to the 5400 that have been evacuated or are we now including people who have registered or did not register on their way out . Secretary psaki as we are assessing, there are people as we at the State Department go through calls and emails who say, i have departed, i have left. That doesnt change the total number of evacuees that we have provided to All Of You every day on planes and transport. But right now we are of course at the point. Trying to assess and get a final number. Reporter the president has been very clear that his commanders on the ground have the leeway to do what they think is necessary on the ground. For a defensive strike like we saw Last Night, is It Something that he signs off on . Or is that commanders on the ground to make that decision . Secretary psaki he makes clear to their commanders that they should stop at nothing to make Isis Pay for the death of those american Service Members at the Kabul Airport. They have the authority necessary. It is selfdefense, obviously these are isis terrorists who killed u. S. Service members. The president is regularly briefed but he has directed them to go after and to kill these isis terrorists who have taken the lives of many women surveying our country. Reporter one more, dealing with very highstakes issues right on the White House, the most dangerous part of the mission right now, a category four hurricane is slamming the Gulf Coast. What is the light has been like over the course of the last 48 hours given these very highstakes moments that are transpiring . Secretary psaki i would say that addressing crises is what government is supposed to do. Its what any president is supposed to do, what any Vice President is supposed to do, and with the senior members of the president s team are supposed to do. So when you have moments like this where you are facing, as he said, multiple crises, i would add of course that we are continuing to fight a pandemic that continues to take the lives of thousands of people every week. You have to rely on strong and capable Team Members and you have to be nimble enough to adapt quickly. I think he would argue this is actually government working to do our best its function as best as we can. Is it tough, yes. Are the days long, yes. Is it always going to be perfect, no pay but this is what the government needs to be doing. Go ahead. Reporter are there data about fuel sources and the refineries impacted . Secretary psaki it is something we are monitoring closely, jeff. We have not seen that to date as an issue, but will closely monitor that and well continue to over the coming days. Secretary psaki there are tools at their disposal we have to address Fuel Supply shortages during national disasters by issuing emergency waivers. If warranted by circumstances, temporary waivers can help ensure that adequate supplies available. Epa as well as several components of the government are in touch with our state partners from Louisiana And Mississippi as well as operators of refineries, pipelines, tanks, and other infrastructure to assess the situation on the ground and what needs exist. We have not made that assessment at this point in time but we do have those authorities should they be needed. Reporter on afghanistan, at the meeting with family yesterday, as a President Plan to continue to stay in touch with those families . Secretary psaki absolutely, and he will continue to look for ways of honoring them in the lives that were lost last week, as well. Go ahead. Reporter Thank You. Just a few other thoughts on the ongoing investigation. Things are changing, winding down, numbers here versus the situation on the ground. They heard through the weekend of americans who are told to get to the airport and unable to do so because of the danger on the ground. If, for some reason, and we dont have a specific example of this yet would be a message to those americans who may be left behind who were trying to get out . Secretary psaki as you noted, and i appreciate the caveat, we are continuing to remain in touch with american citizens, as i noted at the top to darlenes question. And we are continuing to work to evacuate american citizens. Our message would be that our commitment is enduring and our commitment does not waive or come even as we bring our men and women from the military home. Let me just outline for you a couple of the steps that are ongoing that i expect we will give you updates on as details are finalized. First, on the diplomatic front, the Secretary Of State is going to be meeting with a number of international partners just over the weekend, the State Department put out a letter from 100 countries making clear that they must be safe passage for citizens, for afghans to want to leave after the 31st. On friday one of the taliban leaders delivered remarks that individuals who wish to leave after the 31st would be able to do so. That does not mean we trust that they say but there is an enormous amount of international leverage that we will continue to work in accord natively with our partners around the world. There is discussion about what our diplomatic presence may look like going forward. As a secondary state and a national Security Advisor said yesterday, the current plan is not to have an ongoing presence in afghanistan as of september 1st, but will have means and mechanisms of having diplomats on the ground able to continue to process out those applicants and facilitate passage of other people who want to leave afghanistan. We will have more details for that, expect come in the coming days. In one more piece theyre working on, the other piece of this is operational, which is of course the airports. There are also regional airports. We are currently working with a range of partners in the region about how to keep those up and operational. We need to reopen or figure out how to work with our partners to reopen the civilian airport and ensure that as a mechanism. That is an area where there is mutual interest by the united states, the international organizations like the World Food Program who want to get Assistance Income and by the taliban to get these reports operational and running. Reporter thIs Ongoing conversation with the rest of the world about being able to get people out to who want to leave, is there any sense of how long afghans were trying to leave and it lead by tomorrow are going to have to further instruction or a sense of whether or not theyre going to be able to go . Secretary psaki i will tell you that there Is Ongoing immediate urgent conversations happening at a very high level with international partners now, and we hope to have more of an update on that in the coming days. There are different components of this. Airport operations, it may take some time to get that going. But we are working through regional mechanism so they can be ongoing efforts to move people out who are looking to depart afghanistan. Reporter my final one on this, based on things weve heard from people they are, the evacuation of nonamericans, people applying were eligible to leave, does it effectively stop after thursday . Secretary psaki we have continued to individuals. Weve made it clear we have continued to evacuate afghan partners and other applicants. Go ahead. Reporter as it approaches midnight at the end of the 30th in kabul, is that The Way you view the deadline . Or does the White House view the deadline at some Point Tomorrow . Secretary psaki i wont get into operational details of when well continue our Retrograde Efforts. That is led by the Department Of Defense and our team on the ground. Reporter this is before the attack, do you believe they were on pace for the achievement of our objectives. As we approach that Deadline Either Tonight or tomorrow, whatever it is, did the u. S. Accomplish its objectives knowing that they will likely be thousands of applicants and others . Certainly some americans, as well. Secretary psaki i think first we have, to date, evacuating more than 120,000 people. Thats lives saved coming fitting 6,000 americans and their families, many of them dual nationals. We are continuing our commitment, our commitment is enduring to afghan partners and american citizens who may not have decided to leave. That is their right to determine when they want to leave. That commitment is enduring. That would have saved more than 120,000 lives and i would like to evaluate that for yourself. Go ahead. Reporter there are going to be billions of Dollars Worth of u. S. Made munitions, arms, military, aircraft, armored vehicles have fallen into the hands of the taliban here, giving them new capabilities they didnt have before this. Are americans less safe now because the taliban now has access to billions of Dollars Worth of Americanmade Weaponry . Secretary psaki let me unpack your question A Little Bit. The u. S. Military, part of their Retrograde Effort is to reduce the amount of military Equipment Or Apparatus that anyone on the ground has access to. Im not going to get into the details of how they do that, that is part of their effort. I will also reiterate something that our national Security Advisor said just last week. We had to make an assessment several weeks ago about whether we provide materials to the Afghan National Security Forces so they can fight the fight. Obviously they decided not to fight. We made the decision to provide them with that equipment the material. The third piece i would note that is very important here is that we have not assessed that any group on the ground, whether its isisk or the taliban, has any ability to attack the united states. Sorry, that was an aggressive bug. We need to ensure that remains the case, but that was not a capability we have assessed to be the case at this point in time. Theres a difference between the threat that is posed to u. S. Men and women serving more people gathering outside of the gates in kabul and whether these individuals can attack the united states. Reporter you are going to try to limit what access they do have of some of the weaponry in ways that you cant here. But the end of the day, are americans around the globe, western interests, now more at risk because the taliban has new access to all this weaponry . Secretary psaki again, peter, i would say that the world will be watching. We have an enormous amount of leverage, including access to the global marketplace, which is not a small piece of leverage, to the taliban who are now overseeing large swaths of afghanistan. Certainly our objective is not to leave them with any equipment, but that is not always an option when you are looking to retrograde and move out of a war zone. But that is our clear leverage we have with the taliban, and again, our capacities are which, by The Way, killed terrorists last week and i continue to be utilized by the men and women on the ground remain in place in the region. There are other parts of the world, somalia, libya, yemen, where we dont have a presence on the ground and we still prevent terrorist attacks or threats to u. S. Citizens living in the united states or around the world from growing. Reporter is the u. S. More or less safe today than we were before the taliban took over . Secretary psaki again, we are not going to do anything that is going to allow terrorists to grow or prosper in afghanistan or any terrorist organization. That continues to be the president s commitment and his order to u. S. Military over the past several days and the actions announced to show that hes going to deliver on that promise. Go ahead. Reporter [inaudible] Secretary Psaki its an Open Letter that they are welcome to sign on. It is important and will continue to engage with a range of partners including those who we have at times adversarial disagreements with about the need to maintain safe passage for individuals who wish to leave afghanistan. There are a range of international organizations and mechanisms to have those discussions and they are ongoing go ahead. Reporter one question unrelated to this, theres a report that indicates the North Koreans main nuclear reactors may be restarting. What is the white House Reaction . Secretary psaki we are aware of this report and are creating with our allies and partners on developments regarding north korea. This report underscores the urgent need for Dialogue And Diplomacy so they can achieve the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. We continue to seek dialogue with the dprk so we can address this reported activity in the full range of issues related to denuclearization. Go ahead. Reporter i wanted to go to the New York times reported about the student from the american university of afghanistan. It is reported that they had been left behind and they were contacted to try to get out, and then were told that the evacuation had stopped. Separately, the University President apparently told the students and their parents that the information had been handed over and obviously to get them safe passage, which has not yet happened. My question, this sort of draws down, dont we sort of owe a group like that, where he is given after information and a Passport Numbers and their names, to ensure that they make it onto this last flight given the fact that the taliban, soon after coming to kabul, said that this is where the americans train people . They are obviously threatened and scared by that. Secretary psaki absolutely. First let me say that there have been reports that we provided, or the u. S. Provided, lists of people who want to leave afghanistan, to the taliban. That is inaccurate. That is misreported and misconstrued. They have also confirmed repeatedly that we have had to coordinate with the taliban, so there are limited cases that, when buses or individuals are at a Border Checkpoint and trying to get through, in order to get them through to evacuate them successfully, we have had to coordinate and provide details. I dont have confirmations of those events, but that is the scenario in limited cases where that would happen. In vast majority of cases, not aware of any that havent been, those individuals have been evacuated. I dont know what the president of the school said, i dont have confirmation thats happened on the Ground Or Anyone leading the effort on the ground. Certainly our commitment remains to american citizens, to afghans who want to leave, like these individuals and these young people who have been courageous, to get them out of the country. We are in touch with those individuals on the ground. I would also note, as they know, it is scary and it is a very dangerous situation on the ground. Another attack at helmet at any time. When we give these Security Briefings or security warnings, or tell people to move away from the gate, it is because we want to save them and protect them. What weve been trying to do his work with individual cases, with families, with groups, to get them evacuated if and when we can. I would also note our commitment is enduring. This is a very fluid and dangerous situation on the ground. I just dont have detail on the current state of this particular case. Reporter on the Drone Strikes, it seems that we are attacking with more frequency. We have the ability to get this done in the intelligence to do it. But my question is, why is it that we werent able to do a similar action to prevent the attack that happened on thursday . And part of that is, because we now are sharing reports about how this is carried out, eight hours from the uae, is there any concern that we are limited in our ability to respond in a timely manner if weve got eight hours of flight time and they can only hang out over the target for four or five hours before they got to turn around go back . Is their future sort of ongoing worry that we are going to be behind the eight ball again . Secretary psaki first i would say the fact that we have had to tell successful strikes concerned don that confirmed by centcom tells you that its wor. In terms of the specific threats, what we had with respect to kabul, we had been warning about for days, which was the potential for the rising threats, the rising threats from isisk, that it could take place at any moment in time. What we can do and what our commanders on the ground do who have access to all this information, as well, is mitigate risks. We cant eliminate risk. If we were going to continue to evacuate Tens Of Thousands of people, american citizens, afghans, our partners, we had to mitigate risk, we couldnt eliminate it. That is how we proceeded. The president has been clear that Force Protection is of utmost concern. I know my colleague at a dod confirmed the closure earlier today. They have been steps taken, and obviously as weve gone to the retrograde process over the last couple of days and its been incredibly dangerous, there are steps that it had to be taken as these threats increase. Reporter i understand we are looking for other ways after our military has pulled out to get people out. But has this been at all hampered by putin rejecting a u. S. Effort to put counterterrorism forces or aid for drones in central asian countries bordering . I know in that Meeting Putin spoke for china in that. Did we ever get an answer from china ourselves on their position on this . Secretary Psaki I Cant speak to these private diplomatic conversations from here, but i can tell you we have a range of partners in the region who we continue to work with and have discussions with so that we can maintain the horizon capacity. Reporter going back to yesterday, the sister of one of the marines killed the Airport Attack said the president s comments and struck her as shallow, and she said, you Cant Step up and say youre sorry. This did not need to happen. Can you talk A Little Bit about how the president thought the meeting with the families land, and also what responsibility Secretary Psaki i think a president made clear as the Secretary Of State and a national security advising made clear that we are all responsible, and they do feel a responsibility. The buck stops with the president. I think you heard him say that on thursday. When he spoke to the loss of life of these servicemen and women, shortly after it had happened. It is certainly the right of any individual who met with the President Yesterday to speak publicly about their experience. But im not going to speak about the president s experience beyond what ive said already. Reporter he mentioned that the president absolutely planned to stay in touch with those families. Is there a possibility he may attend any funerals or speak at any funerals . Secretary psaki i will say whats important to remember here is that this is the worst thing thats happened ever in the lives of these Family Members, and last thursday or friday was the worst day of their lives. What role the president plays or doesnt play is probably not front and center for them. He Is Only going to do things that are of comfort to the families, are supportive of remembering the lives that have been lost, and he is going to continue to look for ways to do that. Go ahead. Reporter first on afghanistan, the drone strike, according to Family Members in afghanistan, it killed seven children or ten people. Does the president feel that sense of Responsibility And Loss of those lives as he does for the american Service Members . Secretary psaki first let me say that we take efforts and steps from the united states to avoid civilian casualties in every scenario and probably more than almost any country in the world. I cant speak to or confirm the numbers or cases of civilian casualties in this case. There is an investigation. I will note that in the centcom statement they put out yesterday, or Last Night, i should say, with a noted is that there was also the explosion they were explosions in this vehicle that could have led to additional damage. There is an investigation to determine how this happened, but of course the loss of life from anywhere is horrible and it impacts families no matter where they are living in the united states or around the world. Reporter my second question is about american families. 7. 5 Million americans are set to lose unemployment benefits next month. Not just a federal supplement, but all benefits. Given the expiration of the moratorium, whats going on with the Delta Variant, has the president considered asking congress to extend those further . Secretary psaki if congress were to vote to extend the eviction moratorium, the president would sign that into law and he be happy to do that. I think he made a decision based on where things stand in our economic recovery at this point in time. There is additional assistance that continues to go out to people across the country, which you are very familiar with and know well, whether its the Child Tax Credit or additional funding that is still being distributed by the american rescue plan. Our objective continues to be to work with states and localities to keep people in their homes, make sure people have the assistance they need. That is why there is a range of programs and assistance that the president thought like hell for and signed into law thats going to be implanted over the next year and not just ending this summer. Go ahead. Reporter the president regularly talks about he made a point that he called president bush. Im wondering if hes been in touch with president bush, president obama, and im assuming hes not been in contact with President Trump but ill ask anyway, as this withdrawal has played out. Secretary psaki im not aware of because hes had with us president over the last few weeks. Go ahead. Reporter the e. U. Voted to restrictions, on whether they want to allow u. S. Citizens and u. S. Travelers into their countries. Obviously we have not been letting many of those countries come to the u. S. , put what about them taking the steps . Secretary psaki i think its important that that announcement by the e. U. Affects people who were unvaccinated and not people who are vaccinated. Being continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. In the path to reopening travel is for people to get vaccinated, mask up and slow the spread of the deadly virus. We encourage agencies to develop a safe international travel policy. This includes travel from europe and it will involve efforts to protect american people including by potentially strengthening testing protocols for international travel. It may also involve ensuring that foreign nationals come to the united states fully vaccinated with limited exceptions. No decision has been made yet, but these are internal discussions that have benefited greatly from our engagement with our international partners. Reporter a small anything related to the hurricane, are you anticipating that the president will visit louisiana at some point . You think that will likely be later this week . I know things are slow at this point. But you have the Homeland Security secretary already going there tomorrow. Secretary psaki it is different, as you all know, for the president of the united states to travel somewhere given the footprint. The president would not want to go if it were to impact until it does not impact Recovery And Rescue efforts on the ground. So i dont have any prediction of that at this point in time. We will see how the next few days go. Go ahead, karen. Reporter there are reports of hospitals down in louisiana that are full of covid patience, trying to evacuate some patience, issues with Roof Damage and generate is failing. Can you give us a sense of the scope of impact on hospitals in that region and with the federal government is specifically doing about that . Secretary psaki absolutely. First let me say that i know theres been a range of reports out there, but as of late Last Night, no hospitals had run out of oxygen as of late Last Night. That is of Course Something they are watching very closely. Prior to The Storm we had more than 300 federally deployed Health Care personnel on the ground supporting covid response in Louisiana And Mississippi. The department of veterans affairs had made beds available prior to the hurricane to support local hospitals and will be available to assist response and hhs and fema are working to assess and deploy assets as needed. On hospitals, we also have approximately 39 facilities, as i understand, Ease And Generator power, and we are of course working around the clock to get power back on where we can. This is certainly an area where not only did the president speak purposefully over the course of the last few months, and many that are highlevel officials have spoken out about the need for people to get vaccinated, but we have also worked preemptively to put in place generators, equipment, emergency personnel, to help address. I expect as we continue to discuss with the Governor And Health administrators we will determine what additional assistance we can provide. Reporter something you said in your opening, shelters are open in the area and their implanting steps to prevent the spread of covid. Can you give us more details about whats being done in the shelters . Secretary psaki there are steps including social distancing wherever possible, which i know sounds challenging, but that is being worked to implement. Masking wherever possible, and i know the president and several R Highlevel members of the administration made a strong case over the course of the last couple of months for individuals to get vaccinated. We had seen increases in numbers of vaccination in the region, although that is simply not enough to prevent the spread. Go ahead, george. Reporter can you give us any kind of update on the americans the president met with the other day . Secretary psaki is a case that has been raised repeatedly by our officials from the State Department and also managed the State Permit is working closely with a special president ial envoy for hostage affairs and reconciliation that continue to press the taliban for his release, it continues to raise the status in seniorlevel engage in dumb academic engagement. Sandra Jen Psaki giving her daily briefing at the White House, addressing a range of issues. Obviously The Storm down south and the withdrawal in afghanistan. John, on multiple occasions she was pressed about the withdrawal, asking if after the death of those 13 Service Members in the president receiving those Service Members over the weekend, if he had any regrets. She said nothing has changed in that regard. He stands by his decision. Their deaths do not take place about the progress that has been made. As far as the pressing on if we are less safe today as a result of The Way we withdrew from afghanistan, john, and 85 Billion in u. S. Military equipment there, somewhat of a dodge by her. She could have offered a yes or no question. She went on to explain that it is their goal to ensure that the taliban did not get any more access or did not strengthen after this withdrawal. But she certainly did not commit to a yes or no answer there. John thats a pretty tall order. How do you get out of the country when a terrorist organization is in charge and think that they are not going to try to strengthen themselves connect and that other terrorist organizations already within the country are not going to try to strengthen . Jake sullivan basically said that would be the case going forward. Sandra lets bring in former State Apartment Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus. Morgan, love them. What stood out for you listening to the white House Briefing there . We know that Al Qaeda senior leadership still has a safe Haven And Iran and could easily come to afghanistan. And she said very unequivocally that the administration was not going to allow terrorists to grow or prosper in afghanistan. That was a crucial part of the deal that Mike Pompeo and President Trump were negotiating, that the taliban would have to break with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. So as we go forward, as we look at the images of the fact that we are closing up shop in afghanistan, no diplomats, no Military Personnel, no intelligence personnel in afghanistan, around this time tomorrow, as we look forward, we have to really hold the taliban accountable to see, have they broken with Al Qaeda . Is isis allowed to reconstitute . Overthehorizon strikes are good if they kill the necessary targets. To my understanding, the names have still not been released, and obviously we know tragically the absence of civilian Casualties Paidwill has potential terrorist threat the united states. Very closely. I think, john, there will be a significant site on the hill if this administration thinks they will get aid, money, even the nine a half billion dollars of reserves the government has the united states. If they think they will be able to easily give that money to the taliban, its going to be a tough site. John morgan, i want to play something Jake Sullivan said on one of the sunday shows yesterday when asked about the future Terror Threat that could emanate from afghanistan. The national Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said yes, the threat as they are. Listen to what he said. We have to be attuned to the possibility that isisk or any other group within afghanistan would look to extend its reach beyond afghanistan itself. The Intelligence Community has briefed us over time that their current capability to threaten the homeland is not there, but that is a capability that they are seeking and we will continue to pay close attention to that. John earlier today on Fox News, general Jack Keane said thats the reason we were in afghanistan to begin with, and the reason why we shouldnt leave. I think theres a lot of frustration because we have drawn down at the end of the Trump Administration to 2500 troops, and a lot of people wanted to keep a top down that Counterterrorism Presence in afghanistan. As you just said, john, for this very reason. Its important to note that the overthehorizon capabilities are great but that fundamentally does not degrade an entire terrorist organization. That is like playing whack a mole, and it could be significant, but the minute that you take out one Head Guy in the organization, they tend to replace another. Over the horizon strikes should be part of a much larger comprehensive package of going after terrorists in the region that would like to attac. So far come up with added diplomatic presence or military presence or an intelligence presence, we have not heard in this administration with a strategy is to go after Al Qaeda and isis. We keep hearing overthehorizon. Its fantastic, but its not enough. That Is One piece of pizza in the pie. Sandra in fairness, we didnt exactly hear Jen Psaki pressed on just that, but theres a lot of questions and a lot of unknowns about what happens in the next few hours in the days that follow that deadline that is quickly approaching. Morgan, great to have you this afternoon. Thank you. John thanks, morgan. Appreciate it. Decoration flights have already started to wind down out of kabul. Those who were able to get on a flight are being sent to processing sides all of the world, including graham stein germany. Greg palkot is in germany at ben stein rammstein. We are in the fina. There are a lot of lives hang in the balance. Take a look at what we saw at a major u. S. Military hub where you are right now. The taliban, isis, their enemies. Enemies never change. Ua about them . I do. What about the future of the taliban . I dont think this feature is very good. Do you wish you had more time . More time and more sleep. You are doing what you can. We are doing everything we can. Again, going back to the humanity and providing help. Those are some of the 18,000 refugees that are there. It was the commander of the base. They have a lot of worries and concerns, some of them are lucky here. Others are left behind. Back to you, john. John clearly theres a lot of concern for people on the ground and going somewhere else, and for people they left behind, as well. But the u. S. Military certainly has done an incredible job over these last couple of weeks getting people out. Greg palkot for us in ramstein. Thank you. Sandra, you feel for everybody who got out of afghanistan as they try to start a new life, and then you really worry about those who are undoubtedly going to be left behind, because the flights are closing down. Sandra and the amount of Military Equipment and weaponry that we left behind, going back to her exact words, in the Briefing Room just now, sit in the Hour Objection was not to leave the taliban with any equipment. That is not only the mic always the option when you are looking to retrograde and without a war zone. Many americans would like to see an effort to retrieve some of that, but john, the coverage of the story will continue. We will join our colleagues on the five tonight. Thank you for joining is. Im sandra smith. John im John Roberts. Thank you for joining us. We will see you tomorrow as the story continues paid meantime, the Thank You. Good afternoon. Im Martha Maccallum in New York. 20 years after the towers came crashing down September 11th and thousands of americans were killed on our Homeland But Alquaida terrorists who were harbored by the taliban in afghanistan, were back to the beginning. Were 24 hours from leaving the taliban in complete control of the country once again. Americans scramble to get out on these final evacuation planes that are continuing to go out over the next several hours. Genera