Disasters and their Effects ​on the Population: Key Concepts

Speed: Few organizations are capable of implementing a large logistic response as rapidly as the military.

Security: The military can secure a specified environment, population, and material.

Transportation: Their fleet of planes and helicopters, as well as land and naval equipment, enable them to transport resources readily.

Logistics: They have experience in maintaining supply lines in problematic environments and situations.

Command, control, and communication: They have a well-defined and responsive organizational structure.

Self-sufficiency in the field: When military arrive to the region where the event has occurred, they are capable of fulfilling the needs of their own personnel.

Specialized units: They often have specifically trained and equipped units. These include engineers who can provide technical assistance and preventive medicine teams capable of rapidly performing epidemiologic evaluations and surveillance, outbreak investigations, vector control, and water purification and treatment.

Field hospitals and capacity for medical evacuation: Hospitals can be helpful in certain circumstances. See the WHO-PAHO guidelines for the use of field hospitals in sudden-impact disasters.