Highlights Focus

On Friday, August 13, Hurricane Charley roared into Charlotte County on Florida’s Gulf Coast and spun across the state, wreaking havoc in areas that had not seen a storm event of such magnitude in more than 40 years.

PBS&J’s risk and emergency management professionals, having just wrapped up the bulk of their debris management work following the fires in southern California, were on the spot instantly, setting up field operations in PBS&J’s Orlando office. Once again, this committed group of experts would call upon the resources of the firm to support the laborious process of cleaning up mountains of debris following a catastrophic event. Once again, we would be reminded of the complexity of dealing with disaster.

Certainly our nation’s approach to emergency management has come a long way in recent years. Better coordination between local, state, and federal agencies has created a new culture of preparedness and response. New technologies are available to permit greater efficiencies and to facilitate planning and recovery efforts.

Recognizing the interest of many of our clients across the nation in emergency management, we are devoting this issue of PBS&J Highlights to the topic. Our commitment to helping clients meet their infrastructure challenges of all kinds has led PBS&J to develop an extraordinarily comprehensive array of resources—many unique in the industry—to support risk and emergency management. We hope that you will contact us directly for more in-depth discussions on issues of specific concern to you.

Auspiciously, as the finishing touches to this issue of PBS&J Highlights were under way—and only three weeks after Charley struck the eastern U.S.—another major storm, the massive and slow-moving Hurricane Frances, was sending out a new wave of punishing winds and rains. At the same time Hurricane Ivan was hurtling across the Atlantic toward the U.S.; Indiana residents were recovering from severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding; and the Nevada county of Carson City had just become eligible for federal disaster funds to recover from this summer’s Waterfall wildfires. As if this was not enough, the financial services areas of New York City, northern New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. were under a Code Orange level of alert to potential terrorist attacks.

Disasters … they can happen any time, any place.

Are you ready?