DART Is NOT A Rapid Response Team.

Just a reminder, in light of this. DART's purpose is not necessarily to be there 20 minutes after the rubble settles. So not being there 20 minutes after the rubble settles does not count as some kind of failure. If somebody tells you otherwise, as the Tories have done in the past, they are inappropriately politicizing the disaster. This is what DART does.

Short version:

DART is not a rapid response emergency search and rescue team (although its engineering unit is certainly capable in this area) and, therefore, it is not the team to send into a disaster area in the hours immediately following such an event. Response in the first 24 hours is critical for rescue operations, and there are many international teams highly skilled in this task and equipped with trained dogs and specialised search devices... As a primary care medical unit, the DART team attends to illness, disease and obstetrics, and the demand for these treatments increases in the weeks after a disaster, whereas the trauma units are winding down their role at this time.