After Uribe and her family booked a commercial flight on Eastern Airlines, they heard from the State Department, saying they had been selected for a charter flight, but “after so much misinformation from the embassy, we didn't trust them.”

Some of the agency's perceived failures can also be seen as the inevitable result of an unprecedented crisis which has stretched the agency’s resources globally and challenged virtually every aspect of society.

“Part of the way that you know that you’re in a crisis is because it’s chaotic,” said another former State official. “If everything was working smoothly, that would just be a very busy day of normal.”

For example, the former official said, embassies not answering phones or returning messages, which many stranded Americans reported as a typical result in countries where borders were closed, is to be expected during of a crisis of this scale.

The former official said that when an earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, the embassy there was besieged by phone calls, thousands in the first hour.

“That’s absolutely inevitable. There’s no way that a normal operation can answer that,” the official said — and answering individual phone calls would not necessarily be the best use of the staff’s time in that moment, regardless.

But at least one other aspect of State’s response was more surprising to those who have been in those jobs before.

An American Airlines plane earlier this week flew to Peru en route to pick up U.S. citizens stranded in Lima, but had to turn around after State was unable to secure permission to land from the Peruvian government. According to an email from congressional staff to Americans stuck in Peru, negotiations — which apparently failed — were ongoing while the plane was aloft.

“I would say it’s probably unbelievably rare that a plane would be on its way without clearance,” the former official said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who tweeted in frustration on Tuesday about a “lack of urgency” by State to get Americans stuck in Peru, blamed “some in mid-level.”

#AmericansStuckInPeru is due to lack or urgency by some in mid-level of @StateDept



We didn’t need you to “track”this,we needed you to solve this



This morning a competent official has taken direct control & will personally go to #Peru to get Americans home as soon as possible — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 24, 2020

“We didn’t need you to 'track' this, we needed you to solve this,” he said.

A spokesperson for Rubio said specifically that the “individual manning the Peru desk has been 'tracking' this issue for a week, but doing nothing and the Ambassador essentially abandoned the post to return to Washington.”

After Rubio expressed his frustration with State, the agency sent Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Julie Chung to Peru.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed that Ambassador Krishna Urs left Peru on March 20 and is “continuing to engage from Washington with senior Peruvian officials.”

The former officials who spoke to POLITICO said they believe career staff are working to the best of their abilities.

“I personally cannot believe that the professionals in the department didn’t know exactly what to do and reported this up the chain,” said one of the former officials.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo himself triggered frustration and sharp criticism from Democrats when he posted a picture over the weekend of him and his wife working on a puzzle and watching television as thousands of Americans remained stranded.

“I have constituents stuck overseas can you get off your ass and get them home?” tweeted Arizona Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego in response.

I have constituents stuck overseas can you get off your ass and get them home? #coronavirus #COVIDー19 https://t.co/c9ikSsIP9j — Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) March 22, 2020

Lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have repeatedly slammed State for not acting fast enough to get stranded citizens home as their offices are flooded with constituent pleas for help.

Rep. Bill Keating, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the State Department staff that his office has talked to have been working hard.

“The individuals that we’ve been dealing with are just working around the clock, doing more to try to get people home,” Keating said. “Those individuals deserve enormous credit. They’re in difficult situations and understaffed.”

There are upwards of 20 constituents from his southeastern Massachusetts district who have asked his office for help, finding themselves in “really difficult straits,” Keating said. “You can’t exaggerate the stress that the families are feeling.”

A number of congressional Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, sent unsolicited comments to POLITICO praising the administration's repatriation efforts — after the agency informed them about this story.

"We know there are still many Americans currently trapped overseas, but I can assure you the State Department and Secretary Pompeo are working around the clock to bring them home as quickly as possible," said House Foreign Affairs ranking member Michael McCaul (R-Texas) in a statement.