An Analysis of Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) Deployments in the United States

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and types of disasters on which Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) teams have been deployed. METHODS: This descriptive study used the websites of the 42 DMAT teams in the United States with information confirmed by NDMS websites for a historical analysis of DMAT team deployment. All 42 DMAT teams were included in the analysis from 1985 through 2002. One DMAT team did not have a website, so they were contacted by phone. RESULTS: From 1985 through 2002 DMAT teams were deployed for 50 disasters: 41 natural (41/50=82%), and 9 man-made disasters (9/50=18%). Of the 41 natural disasters, there were 17 hurricanes/tropical storms (17/41=41.6%), 10 floods (10/41=24.3%), 7 earthquakes (7/41=17.0%), 4 fires (4/41=9.8%), 2 blizzards/ice storms (2/41=4.9%), and 1 tornado (1/41=2.4%). Of the 9 man-made disasters, there were 3 terrorist attacks (3/9=33.3%), 2 epidemics (2/9=22.2%), 2 plane crashes (2/9=22.2%), 1 fire (1/9=11.1%) and 1 relief mission (1/9=11.1%). Of the 8 disasters outside of the United States, there were 4 earthquakes (4/8=50%), 2 tropical storms (2/8=25%), 1 wildfire (1/8=12.5%) and 1 relief mission (1/8=12.5%). There were also numerous "stand-by" deployments. CONCLUSION: The majority (over 80%) of DMAT team deployments from 1985 through 2002 were for natural disasters, although there has been an increase in "man-made" disasters in recent years with terrorist attacks being the most frequent man-made disaster. DMAT teams have also been deployed on missions outside the United States, most often responding to earthquakes and secondly for hurricanes/tropical storms. There has been a prevalence of "water-related" natural disasters including hurricanes/tropical storms and floods, which accounted for three fourths of all natural disasters (25/34=73.5%) and about two thirds of all (natural and man-made) disasters (25/43=59.5%) in the United States over an 18 year period. Recent events including hurricane Katrina suggest that our finding of a prevalence of "water-related" natural disasters is a reliable trend. In the future, DMAT teams need to be prepared to function in a variety of disasters, both natural and man-made, although resources and planning must include "water-related" disasters because they comprise the majority of disasters in the United States.