Duratek Prepares for Katrina/Rita Emergency Response Services |
“Duratek has the technical and practical expertise as well as a highly successful emergency response record. Katrina created problems for which Duratek has solutions. We are ready to roll.” After Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast, leaving behind the worst devastation caused by a natural disaster in U.S. history, Duratek developed a work plan that defined resources we could mobilize to participate in the cleanup efforts. When the U.S. Government opened the disaster areas to begin the estimated $200 billion relief efforts, we dispatched a team of three Duratek personnel on a week long reconnaissance mission. They contacted more than 25 companies and Federal and State agencies with which Duratek has contractual arrangements and matched our comprehensive services with defined needs, focusing on human resources, equipment resources, facility resources, transportation resources, and contract vehicles. The three employees, Donnie Brackett, Ken Mullins, and Paul Corpstein, traveled hard-hit areas from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Mobile, Alabama. “Pictures on the news just don’t do justice to how devastating the destruction was. We drove down streets in Mississippi where homes had been reduced to rubble. Centuries-old live oak trees with circumferences of tens of feet were twisted and snapped off just a couple feet off the ground. I saw a boat 30 feet up in a tree, a home that had been washed onto the highway, an empty car dealership where every car and truck was washed off the lot and piled on top of each other in a drainage canal. I couldn’t help but wonder as I looked at these flattened homes, where were the people, are they safe, can they ever return?” said Donnie Brackett. Duratek continues to prepare to support Katrina recovery efforts. We have negotiated teaming agreements with some local companies, established contacts in regulatory agencies and have signed service agreements with major players in the disaster relief efforts. We have identified some 100 skilled persons with the training and experience to address the waste management challenges arising from this large-scale crisis. As the focus of the disaster relief efforts evolves from taking care of human needs to cleaning up the environment, Duratek is ready to implement its emergency response/disaster relief capabilities. |
Vol.1 No.3
Fall 2005
(past issues)
Fall 2005
(past issues)