DISASTER MORTUARY SERVICE TEAMS (D-MORT)
Fatalities are natural results of major disasters and must be properly addressed in preplans and at the incident site or they may cause more problems than the actual disaster.
The Federal Response Plan recognizes this need and addresses under Emergency Support Function #8 the tasks of victim recovery and identification and mortuary service. Disaster Mortuary Service Teams (D-MORT) were initiated in 1990 under the auspices of the National Disaster Medical System. Every FEMA/HHS district has one of these teams, which have a basic response of 25 members. Team positions include medical examiner/coroners, forensic odontologists, anthropologists, latent print experts, security experts, funeral directors, critical incident stress debriefers, secretaries, and assistants; each position is reinforced by four.
The teams only assist the local authorities; they at no time supersede the local authority. They operate under the Federal Liability Act at all times. Licensure and certification, while issued on the state level, are valid for operating in all states; the federal government compensates members on a preset GS scale. The teams have the full resources of the federal government to assist them in resolving any type of situation.
TRAINING COURSE
The Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland, has been offering a Mass Fatalities training course since 1990. Its purpose is to train medical examiner/coroners, forensic odontologists, funeral directors, and investigative personnel to work effectively as a team at a mass-fatalities incident. An appreciation of the scope of the operational aspects that comprise one of these incidents may be gained by attending one of these courses with representatives of the fire service, EMS, emergency management, and elected officials present.
Many states, counties, and municipalities have developed a training course based on the one offered at the Emergency Management Institute and have added a mortuary component that provides for realistic training to their municipal disaster plans. Many community drills now are expanding the scope of participation beyond fire suppression and rescue to the recovery, identification, processing, and development of Family Assistance Centers for the next of kin.
MOBILE TEMPORARY MORGUE
The National Foundation for Mortuary Care is a nonprofit organization composed of members from every emergency discipline. Realizing that communities may not find it economically feasible to stockpile the supplies to handle a mass-fatalities incident, the foundation has a fully stocked 16-work-station temporary morgue that can be deployed to the requesting agency at no cost. The requesting agency is asked to replace broken or expended equipment (such as Latex gloves). The mobile morgue station is stored at the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, courtesy of the city of Phoenix. The first deployment of the mobile morgue was for the September 1994 USAir crash in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The unit was operational in Beaver County within 15 hours.
The D-MORT teams or the National Foundation for Mortuary Care mobile morgue station may be requested by calling 1 -800-USA-NDMS.
