White House Monitors Haiti Quake Aftermath From Situation Room

President Barack Obama
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President Obama will speak today about the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and administration officials huddled all night in the Situation Room to coordinate the government response.

An administration official told TPMDC that Obama was updated by his national security staff at 8:30 p.m. last night and told them “he expects an aggressive, coordinated effort by the U.S. government.”

Yesterday after the quake struck Obama asked aides to check on the status of embassy personnel and kicked the U.S. response into high gear.

The White House said that at 10 p.m. last night Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon hosted a Situation Room meeting with senior officials from the State and Defense departments, the Department of Homeland Security, USAID, USUN, SOUTHCOM, JCS, Coast Guard, and national security and White House staff to coordinate Obama’s request.

Obama will speak at some point today after receiving an additional briefing on the situation.

“Each agency is working overnight to ensure that critical resources are positioned to support the recovery effort, including efforts to find and assist American citizens in Haiti,” the official said. “Both the White House and the State Department are facilitating donations to the International Red Cross through their websites.”

Secretaty of State Hillary Clinton last night said the U.S. “is offering our full assistance to Haiti and to others in the region” with both civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

The Coast Guard in Miami also deployed cutters and aircraft to the waters around Haiti late yesterday.

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