Government

When things go awry, people look to government. Emergency Management capabilities at the local, state, and Federal level vary by jurisdiction, discipline, funding, location, and the perception of the last major event. Two things necessary for a robust emergency management program are a real, substantive, long-term, and demonstrable commitment of executive support and champions. GVC has been at every level of government and assisted hundreds of jurisdictions to improve their emergency management capabilities and capacities including developing comprehensive plans; training personnel on the Incident Command System (ICS), National Incident Management System (NIMS), Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS, in California), Emergency Operations Center, Continuity Planning, Public Information; and exercising (from small tabletop discussions, to high energy functional exercises, to field and full scale exercises involving the movement of materiel and personnel.) From standing on the banks of flood swollen rivers and in the rubble of earthquakes; to working in the New Orleans Emergency Operations Center following Hurricane Katrina; to staffing the State Operations Center in California during fires, floods, dam failure, and earthquakes; to ensuring that hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for recovery are put to the best use for the public, to working as the Chief of Staff for FEMA following several hurricanes, GVC has seen the good, bad, and the ugly. Before, during, and after a disaster GVC can provide sage and salient advice, insights from our experiences, and robust problem solving.