If you follow us on social media, you may have seen that our company exhibited at the RIMS Conference this past spring. RIMS is a Society for Risk Managers that has a large conference every year that travels around the country. As you can imagine, Risk Managers rely on companies like ours to provide service on a daily basis and for major disasters.
Most major companies have some sort of risk management department, these individuals and groups are responsible for identifying risks in their organization and taking steps to mitigate those risks. The risk managers we work with relying on BMS CAT for services like water damage restoration, fire damage restoration, reconstruction and microbial remediation. Their job can be complex, and the risks constantly change. This year’s conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, which brought back a lot of memories for many in attendance.
This fall will mark the ten-year anniversary that Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. New Orleans was certainly not the only community affected, but the images of the devastation in the city are embedded in our collective memories. While at the conference it was impossible for our team from BMS CAT not to reminisce about the events that took place nearly a decade ago.
When Hurricane Katrina reached Category 5, BMS CAT was already responding to damage in other areas from the storm. But we knew this landfall would be much more severe than her previous brushes with the land. So we continued to dispatch crews and equipment to safe areas near the projected impact points. While we were ready and waiting, there was nothing that could prepare us and the rest of the world for what we were about to see.
Once our teams were permitted entry to the impacted areas, we began to restore facilities that were overwhelmed by damage from wind, rain, flooding and looting. Our crews were working in conditions that the United States was shocked to see. Very few areas had running water or electricity, so most of our employees stayed one to two hours away busing back and forth to work each day. From Florida to Texas, our customers relied on BMS CAT to bring them back from devastation.
To say our team told the war stories about Katrina with pride is an understatement. Everyone at the conference felt a connection to the storm and what it did to the communities affected. Some said New Orleans would never be the same, maybe there are right, but the city we witnessed was stronger and better than ever.