IEM CEO Madhu Beriwal Discusses Life and Emergency Management as Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Nears

Raleigh, NC, August 26, 2013 – IEM’s President and CEO, Madhu Beriwal, spoke on North Carolina’s Public Radio show, “The State of Things” today. She talks with host Frank Stasio about her life and research in emergency management. Beriwal shares stories of her life growing up as an educated woman in Calcutta, India, her bold move to the United States as a college student and what led her to start her own company, IEM, in 1985. She reflects on what inspired her passion for emergency management, specifically hurricane planning.

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As we approach the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Beriwal discusses with Stasio the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project, called “Hurricane Pam” and how it was a scientific bulls-eye predicting the destruction that was caused by Hurricane Katrina one year later. She relates personal and emotional stories of Katrina’s destruction and the recovery efforts she witnessed and how it still has a profound effect on her today.