Registered nurse Mary Brannan packs for her trip to Washington. Mrs. Brannan is part of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team, which will be in the capital today to help victims. MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

Dr. Hawkins and 10 other members of the local Disaster Medical Assistance Team were scheduled to be in Washington today to help with the aftermath of a plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The team was to leave at 9 p.m. Tuesday for Atlanta to meet up with 29 members of another team based there, then drive in a caravan to the nation's capital. They won't know what to expect until they get there, Dr. Hawkins said. Just looking at the wall of the Pentagon where the plane hit didn't make him optimistic.

''It's collapsed in on itself,'' said Dr. Hawkins, the commander of the unit. ''It's probably a lot worse than what we're seeing.''

The destruction reminded nurse Mary Brannan of the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., that severely damaged her home and left her without power or water for five days.

''(But) I think this will be on a much grander scale,'' she said as she packed at her home in Columbia County to leave for Washington. ''It's going to be terrifying, I think.''

The team could be deployed in a tent as a mobile hospital to treat victims, or might relieve the crew of a Washington hospital that will doubtless be working around the clock, Dr. Hawkins said. Or it might be stationed at the scene to care for the investigators, he said.

By today, the majority of the immediate wounds will have been tended, Dr. Hawkins said. What the Augusta team sees may be caused by debris or dust, or by the psychological impact of the attack, he said.

''A lot of asthma, a lot of eye injuries,'' said Dr. Hawkins, who has been deployed to care for refugees from Kosovo. ''A lot of anxiety and a lot of chest pains.''

There is anxiety among the team as well - though she's been a nurse for more than 20 years, Mrs. Brannan wonders how she'll handle the scene when she gets there. And there is the possibility that it is not over, that there are more attacks to come, Dr. Hawkins said.

When he turns to the television of the waiting room at Doctors Hospital, where he is an emergency department physician, it still seems surreal.

It may not hit him, he said, ''until I'm actually physically standing there.''

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tomc@augustachronicle.com.