The following initial information on the USA Health and Human Services (HHS) response to Japan was sent to MRC leaders on Friday afternoon. Please note the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) is the same type of team Utah is begining to set up. If you are interested in federal disaster emergency deployments, please visit http://www.utdmat.org/ to learn more on how to volunteer. You can also view our DMAT Blog Post from earlier this month for more information.
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Dear MRC leaders, volunteers and stakeholders,
We have just received the following statement regarding HHS Activities in Response to the Earthquake in Japan and Pacific Tsunami (March 11, 2011)
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is prepared to provide with public health and medical support to the government of Japan, the state of Hawaii, and states along the West Coast should assistance be needed in the aftermath of today’s earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami.
HHS is deploying a Disaster Medical Assistance Team of more than 35 healthcare professionals, advanced logistics team, and a command and control team, called an Incident Response Coordination Team, to Travis Air Force Base in California, as well as caches of medical equipment and supplies. From the Air Force base, the teams and equipment can deploy quickly wherever they are needed if requested by states or territories in the region or by the government of Japan.
Additional HHS teams are on alert, ready to deploy if needed to provide emergency medical care, staff medical shelters, augment community hospital staff, provide veterinary care, or conduct disaster mortuary operations.
HHS regional emergency coordinators are also in contact with state and territory health officers to ensure states have the resources necessary to respond.
The Administration on Aging is monitoring the situation with the state, tribal and local agencies on aging in impacted area to ensure safety of older adults in potentially impacted areas.
All tsunami resources will be posted on CDC's Tsunami webpage: http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/.
The CDC Emergency twitter account (http://twitter.com/CDCEMERGENCY) will be tweeting basic messages pointing to our pages (e.g. "There are safety and health concerns following a tsunami – learn more: http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/") and retweeting HHS, FEMA and other federal agency messages.
At this time, there have been no requests or alerts for MRC participation at the national level. However, I do encourage all MRC unit leaders to use this event as an opportunity to test activation mechanisms, ensure that MRC volunteers meet all local requirements, and recruit additional members.
We will keep you informed if national-level MRC involvement is requested.
CAPT Rob Tosatto
Director, Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps
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