Orlando, Fla. – If government can’t do it, business will.
Once the domain of government and charitable relief groups, hurricane response and preparedness are a booming billion-dollar business – from the self-heating food packets to the souped-up cellphone towers on wheels. Call it Hurricanes Inc.
“Private industry is the only way to go,” said Joe Spraggins, emergency-management chief for a Mississippi county hit hard by Katrina.
The trend has been growing for a few years. But with 2004, when multiple storms struck Florida, and last year – with Katrina, then Rita – it has only accelerated.
Spraggins, of Harrison County, Miss., won’t count so much on government for emergency supplies and other help this summer.
Instead, he’ll count on the lure of the almighty buck by hiring private companies to be ready with food, water, gas and sanitary sewer supplies.
The business opportunity is especially clear from the numbers at the annual National Hurricane Conference in Orlando last week: About 15 years ago, there were 30 exhibitors, according to coordinator Teri Besse. This year, 170 companies and groups ponied up $1,500 for 10-foot booths for 2 1/2 days.
Sixteen companies had larger equipment towers, RVs and portable bathrooms sprawling across half the hotel parking lot. Forty more were on an exhibit waiting list for lack of space.
Booths offered a soup-to-nuts menu: portable showers, cots, individual weather stations, hurricane shutters, chain saws, generators and satellite phones. There was software to help emergency managers decide what to do about an oncoming storm, expensive emergency communication systems for police and fire departments, and booths promoting engineering firms and debris- hauling and trucking companies.
Perhaps the oddest sight was in front of the Redi-Alert sign company’s booth. It was embattled former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown, who was in charge during Katrina, shaking hands and talking about the need for warning signs.
Dave Blandford, marketing director for HeaterMeals Inc. of Cincinnati, said he’s an old-timer. He has come to the conference for about seven years, showing off food that warms up when water is poured on a little pouch. A chemical reaction causes steam, and within 10 minutes the food is hot – but not as hot as Blandford thinks the hurricane industry is.
“Some folks here said, ‘Man, this is huge business; this is my new business. I’m not in the landscaping business anymore, I’m going to be a hurricane debris contractor,”‘ Blandford said.
For the first time, there were paid ads in the conference’s 24-page glossy magazine listing all the product exhibitors.
In Lee County, Fla., emergency management chief John Wilson just paid a company $45,000 to guarantee that generators will be available for shelters if a storm hits. Previously, he’d wait until after the storm and then beg and borrow from neighboring counties or wait for the feds to show up.
The American Red Cross, which runs shelters mostly with volunteers, is going the business route. The agency is working on a long-term logistics system with retailer Wal-Mart, said Joe Becker, a Red Cross official. The charity also will hire churches and other groups to run shelters catering to specific populations.
National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield sees the private industry boom as a good thing. “I’m so totally convinced that the government can’t do this on its own,” he said.
