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Handling Disasters & Emergencies: A Private Sector Solution

Since Katrina, I’ve been really interested in how governments, businesses and other organizations handle emergency situations. Thinking back to the tragedy in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast, I know that our government was neither prepared for such a large-scale emergency nor able to gather the information necessary for making critical decisions.

At the time, I believed that emergency management was primarily a government function (and consequently its failure), but since then I’ve learned that there are several companies that will help both governments and businesses prepare for these situations.

Global Search Pros has recently signed such a firm as a client.

Early Alert is a Florida-based emergency management consulting company staffed by experienced professionals in meteorology, emergency response & emergency planning. Several members of their team have military backgrounds, as well as, extensive experience working with governments and businesses in this important area. They offer several really critical (and kind of cool) services.

In addition to Emergency Management Consulting, they offer:

• All Hazard Training - teaching governments and companies how to respond to disasters (man-made or natural)
• Situational Awareness - Tracking & reporting of critical information so clients know exactly what is going on during an emergency
• Continuity of Operations Planning - Creating plans and procedures so organizations can get key functions back up and running as soon as possible
• Alerts & E-letters - custom information about weather and other threats to operations

As you might have guessed, I’m pretty psyched about bringing Early Alert on board. While I don’t expect that I will need them (I live in the Northeast), I’m pretty sure that New Orleans would not be rebuilding (still) and my friend’s church wouldn’t have been torn apart if someone like them had been contacted.

This year, the hurricane season was not as violent or tragic but every year people lose their lives and billions in damages occur. I’d prefer that government kept the right expertise in house, but if they can’t or won’t do that, then we need to look to the private sector.

This article has been updated to reflect the change of DRIs domain name from www.dristaffing.com to www.dricareers.com.

Diversified Recruitment, Inc. (www.dricareers.com) is a diversity recruiting, consulting and management company based in the Chicago area. Its goal is the development and placement of minority MBAs, IT and Engineering professionals.

In addition to a job board featuring positions with Fortune 1000 companies and other firms, DRI provides a large library of articles.

The main purpose for most visitors is finding a new job, but the number of free resources available on the site should not be ignored. Article topics range from typical career development pieces, such as negotiating your compensation package to more ’soft skills’ oriented features such as how to communicate with your boss & managing work/life balance. There is also material for entrepreneurs and overall the site offers content for professionals at every stage of their career.

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