MIAMI — Project DYNAMO already had a team on the ground ready to help when the devastating 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck late Wednesday.

On Friday, Mario Duarte, the nonprofit’s president and chief executive officer, said the team had already delivered food, water, and medicine to survivors — and there was more on its way.

During the first 48 hours, the nonprofit’s leadership estimated that the team in Venezuela had delivered about 20,000 pounds of aid to survivors in Caracas and neighboring areas.

“They are also still trying to get to their loved ones who are unfortunately still under all that rubble,” said Duarte, who served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserves.

The veteran-led and donor-funded nonprofit organization, founded during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, has volunteers in Venezuela who have collection and distribution channels.

Victor Palazzi, a volunteer for the nonprofit in Venezuela, said the survivors who were displaced and those who are trying to help them are dealing with “very difficult conditions” and “the resources are limited.”

The nonprofit is ready to deploy experts in search-and-rescue efforts, field medicine, and humanitarian logistics, as soon as the country’s airports reopen to commercial or private humanitarian flights.

“The most difficult part is just to make it to the region because all the air strips are now closed and they are only allowing military traffic in,” said Duarte, the former security manager for the Houston Airport Authority.

Duarte, a Guatemalan American with experience in intelligence in the public and private sectors, said the disaster relief aid needs to keep flowing.

“People are going to be needing it for months to come,” Duarte said.

For more information about the nonprofit and how to donate to their efforts, visit this page.

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