Last month, The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, called on ambulance services like Kansas City’s MAST Ambulance for deployments of up to 30 days to travel to Louisiana and Texas to aid in the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.  The Missouri Ambulance Association responded in the affirmative providing more than 30 ambulances.  MAST Ambulance of Kansas City sent four ambulances and ten crew members.

The phone call to MAST was received on September 9th at 1:40 pm and the ambulance was on the road to Kelley Air Force Base by 7:15 pm that night.

All of the Missouri crews that made the journey are recognized and thanked for their willingness to respond to such a call with just a few hours notice.  Leaving home for an indefinite period of time, living on an abandoned Air Force base and making the overall sacrifice to help others is a greatly appreciated commitment.

Gustav and Ike were not the first time that MAST and other Missouri agencies have been utilized by emergency management.  In fact, this is the third year Missouri ambulance services have been needed for natural disaster needs. 

In order to be prepared for the South’s 2008 run in with the hurricanes, and after lessons learned from Katrina, FEMA had set in place a contract for roughly 700 ambulances from all over the country.

The federal groups from Missouri were organized into segments through a pre-organized system.

Some of the Missouri ambulances were sent to do battle with Gustav’s aftermath from gathering points in Jackson Mississippi, and Kelley Air Force Base to prepare for the evacuation of patients in nursing homes and hospitals, to be available for response to mass casualty scenarios and to repatriate patients to nursing homes and hospitals.

In total, 640 ambulances were deployed for Gustav.  In addition to treating many people, one hundred, ten people were evacuated by ambulance. 

Most of the ambulances were redeployed for Hurricane Ike, an effort coordinated by the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA.  Before Ike's Sept. 13 landfall on the Texas Gulf of Mexico coast, the team evacuated and provided ambulance transport for many people.

Expenses to cover the costs will be reimbursed by FEMA, and includes travel, fuel and personnel.

MAST sent two ambulance crews to San Antonio which were put to good use.  The crews stayed very busy moving patients from hospitals and nursing homes to gathering areas with power and water.

Another group of Missouri ambulances deployed to the South through the state strike team out of St. Louis.  This group worked in conjunction with the FEMA effort.  A very positive result of these coordinated efforts from Missouri is that the Department of Health and Senior Services, DHSS, can learn from and make use of the organization in order to mobilize ambulances from all over the state to a local mass casualty incident.

Most Missouri crews returned on September 21 after a two week deployment.

White says now that everyone is home the next step is to build an even better plan to offer these services in the future.