Emergency response contractor IEM gets ready for intense hurricane season
Florida Politics – In Florida alone, $18 billion in federal emergency relief funding has been earmarked for the state. But only $13 billion has been disbursed in the Sunshine State for emergency response since 2017. That means emergency management contractors may have to cover some costs in the initial stages of operations.
“It’s really doing the diligence necessary to make sure that you’re as ready as you can be knowing there’s going to be a lot of variability when storms happen,” Koon said.
He added that many people not in the emergency response and management contracting industry have no idea how much advance work goes on ahead of storm season. Debris removal, reconstruction crews and associated response contractors don’t simply show up without notice when power lines fall during a storm.
“You’ve got to have that kind of stuff lined up now,” Koon said, noting it would be a dramatic domino effect if the contracts weren’t in line well before any tropical system makes landfall. “If that’s delayed, power recovery is delayed, reconstruction is delayed, school opening is delayed, business reopening is delayed and that just continues to compound and the long-term recovery is delayed.”
