ABQjournal: N.M. Team Is On Disaster Stand-By

    Thirty-five members of a New Mexico medical assistance team were on stand-by in Houston on Sunday, waiting for deployment to an area in need of aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
    The Disaster Medical Assistance Team will not know its destination until after the hurricane makes landfall and federal officials assess where help is needed, said Michael Richards, director of the University of New Mexico's Center for Disaster Medicine.
    The team was ordered to begin preparing on Saturday.
    The self-sustaining team operates in areas where regular services are inoperable.
    "We carry all the materials and supplies necessary to provide care for 72 hours," Richards said.
    This includes medical supplies, communication equipment, a generator, food and water.
    The team, which was established in 1989, has been sent out after hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Their most recent deployment was to Florida last year after Hurricane Francis struck.
    Richards said that, after a hurricane, the team typically sees people who were injured by debris or hurt while trying to move around storm-damaged buildings.
    Once the team receives its orders, it will most likely travel over land, taking three large trucks to transport 20 tons of supplies and equipment. Deployments usually last about two weeks, Richards said.
    Four of the team members are emergency medicine doctors at UNM, the team's local sponsor.
    Medical assistance teams are also standing by in Tennessee and Alabama, Richards said.

Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal
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