Different medical needs between hurricane and flood victims.

Objective: Through the review of patient records seen by the New Mexico-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (NM-1DMAT) after various disasters, we hoped to find patterns that might help in disaster planning. Our hypothesis was that flood and hurricane victims have different medical conditions and needs.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patient records for NM-1DMAT deployments to Hurricane Andrew in Florida (August 1992) and the Houston, TX flood caused by Tropical Storm Allison (June 2001). We compared age, gender, chief complaint, medical history, diagnosis, diagnostic testing, treatment rendered, triage category, and patient disposition.

Results: We found several differences between the patients presenting after Hurricane Andrew and those presenting after Tropical Storm Allison. The chief complaint, diagnosis, presence of medical history, diagnostic testing, treatment rendered, triage category, and disposition all differed between the 2 disasters. The mean ages in both groups were similar.

Conclusions: The needs of the patients differed in several areas between Hurricane Andrew and the Houston flood. This information should be tested in a future hurricane or flood and taken into account when planning for deployments.