Mass Disasters

Question 1

what is a mass disaster?

Answer 1

an event, natural or man-made, which causes a large number of deceased individuals

Question 2

what are the types of natural disasters?

Answer 2

• famine
• epidemics
• fire
• flood
• volcanos

Question 3

what are the types of man-made disasters?

Answer 3

• war
• terrorism
• riots
• aircraft/watercraft crash
• ethnic cleansing

Question 4

what is the primary goal in dealing with mass disasters?

Answer 4

get aid and relief to the surviviors

Question 5

what is the secondary goal in dealing with mass disasters

Answer 5

• personal ID

- cause and manner of death

Question 6

why should you determine cause and manner of death in mass disasters?

Answer 6

• can be important for public safety

- civil litigation for reparation to victim’s families

Question 7

what is included in the planning of dealing with a mass disaster?

Answer 7

• open vs closed cases
• fragmented vs complete remains (degree of fragmentation and number of victims determine for reparation to victims’ families)
• fate of unidentified victims

Question 8

DMORT

Answer 8

• disaster mortuary operational response team
• part of the federal response to disaster
• part of the national disaster medical system

Question 9

what are the three resource groups of DMORT?

Answer 9

• personnel
• family assistance center
• disaster portable morgue unit

Question 10

who are the experts that make up DMORT?

Answer 10

• funeral directors
• pathologists
• anthropologists
• odonatologists
• family assistance counselors
• evidence technicians

Question 11

what do forensic anthropologists do in a mass disaster?

Answer 11

• personal ID/repartition
• trauma and analysis
• prosecution of offenders

Question 12

what do forensic anthropologists do at the morgue?

Answer 12

• triage of remains
• describe remains and conduct biological profile
• interpret radiographs
• analyze trauma evidence and injuries
• establish minimum number of victims (MNI)
• assist in IDs

Question 13

what does the family assistance center do?

Answer 13

• provide direct information about the event and status, not from the media
• collect antemortem info and info for the IDs of victims
• provide support and counseling for families
• common place for families to gather

Question 14

when is DMORT called?

Answer 14

• when local jurisdiction cannot handle the scope of the event
• can be modified to fit any situation
• all deaths are still under the jurisdiction of the ME or coroner

Question 15

identifying the victims of the September 11 attacks

Answer 15

• large number of missing persons
• highly fragmented and altered remains
• identifications based on genetic testing

Question 16

why was the fresh kills landfill deployed?

Answer 16

• requested by the NYPD crime scene personnel
• asked to identify osseous vs nonosseous
• assesses which bone, side, identifying features, reassociate remains when possible
• every piece was ID’d by DNA

Question 17

ID of victims of Hurricane Katrina

Answer 17

• large number of missing persons, some may have relocated before or after the disaster
• remains distributed over a large area
• remains largely intact but decomposed
• cementary disintermnets
• ID from tradition and DNA methods

Question 18

human rights mission

Answer 18

• goals are to collect and record evidence of crimes against humanity
• ID and return the bodies of victims to their families

Question 19

minnesota protocol

Answer 19

-made for analysis of skeletal remains that includes a checklist of the steps in a basic forensic investigation