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A Northern Virginia search-and-rescue team is preparing to deploy to Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes killed at least 180 people, injured about 1,500 and left thousands reported missing.

Virginia Task Force 1, which includes the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team, will join a similar team from California. The State Department was still coordinating transportation Thursday afternoon because the main airport in Caracas may have been damaged.

The Virginia team plans to send about 80 people and six dogs. It will also carry 70,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, allowing responders to operate without relying on Venezuelan authorities for support.

The cargo includes food, water, shelter supplies, medical and rescue equipment, communications gear and computers.

“We hope to get to Venezuela as quickly as possible, and then work with the local emergency management authorities to figure out where they need our capabilities and capacity the most, and go to work,” team spokesman John Morrison said. “And hopefully rescue some victims that are trapped in buildings after the earthquakes.”

The team specializes in reaching people deeply trapped inside reinforced-concrete structures that collapse during earthquakes. It previously deployed following earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal.

A month before the Venezuela deployment, its members joined Los Angeles responders for an exercise simulating rescue operations after a major earthquake in an urban area.

The two earthquakes had magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. How long Virginia Task Force 1 will remain in the country will depend on the Venezuelan government and when authorities shift operations from rescue to recovery.

“We’ll be there as long as we’re needed,” Morrison said.

Virginia Task Force 1 is sponsored by the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department and has about 200 trained responders.