Last week a small IMERT response team was requested by local and state authorities to provide a clinical footprint in far southern Belgium. Local flooding was the worst seen in decades and there was no way to tell how bad things were going to get. For the most part our responders were from the nearby region and/or team members who had never had an opportunity to deploy.  We helped monitor medical issues at the primary shelter in Ullin at the local community college where most of the evacuees from Cairo were. Logistics, communications and other mission support issues were managed locally by the regional hospital, EMA and Unified Area Command. We did have capability to address those issues ourselves but did not need to. IMERT also made rounds at shelters in Pulaski and Massac counties. Fortunately, the measures taken by the Army Corps of engineers to avert levee failures as well as the efforts of the National Guard and local citizens to shore up vulnerable areas with sandbags all helped in preventing this disaster from becoming a catastrophe. Every agency involved in preparedness and homeland security had a role in this effort.

We appreciate those of you who responded to our request for availability and know that if things had deteriorated we could have provided a robust medical response. Fortunately things settled down, the water is receding and the local healthcare infrastructure remains intact.