When tragedy strikes, Belfor is ready and waiting to clean up the mess he left behind. As the world’s largest disaster recovery company, it receives approximately 330,000 calls a year and has more than 12,000 employees worldwide equipped to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks and more.
Right now, its CEO Sheldon Yellen is in Florida, just weeks after hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the state. It has been going on for almost four decades. Yellen and her team to pick up the pieces after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011, Hurricane Katrina, and the floods in Thailand, to name a few.
Next week, they could also be in Washington DC if the 2024 US presidential election turns sour. It’s a stage, says Yellen luckthe company is “ready”.
A quarter of Americans fear civil war after the election
America at the crossroads. The presidential election is only a few days away, however the nation fairly evenly distributed who should lead the country: Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
Add to that a pattern of rejecting election results, debate over whether society is too “woke” or too conservative, and a growing distrust of real or fake news, and you have a recipe for potential disaster.
Perhaps it explains why more than a quarter of Americans believe a civil war could break out after this year’s presidential election, according to polls. The Times.
Twelve percent of respondents said they knew someone who might take up arms if they believed Donald Trump had been cheated since his victory. Five percent said they knew someone who believed they had cheated on Kamala Harris who might have done the same.
“Of course, we’d hope nothing happens first, but we’re ready to do whatever we’re called to do,” Yellen says. “We are ready at all times, 24/7, 365 days a year.”
To be clear: Belfor is equipped for such a scenario, not because he foresees America on the brink of civil unrest, but because that’s the nature of the job. For example, unlike many governments around the world, Belfor was prepared for a pandemic before COVID-19 hit.
“We have a responsibility to be ready to respond, and we have all the necessary tools to respond,” Yellen explained.
“When that pandemic broke, we had a million dollars worth of inventory on our shelves (of face masks), people looking in from the outside would say, ‘Sheldon, why do you have so many masks on your shelves?’ I can’t tell you why, except in cases where we need it.’
Likewise, if Harris or Trump lose all hell after winning, then, as Yellen says, Belfor is ready.
What a civil war cleanup might look like
If unrest were to occur in America’s capital — or anywhere — Yellen says it would take just 60 minutes for the company to act.
“Our command centers are perfectly suited to dispatch and be up and running within an hour,” he says.
Our satellite phones are constantly tested to ensure. Our generators are tested every week…” he adds. “All our protocols are always in place because we never know when that phone call is coming and what exactly it’s for.”
In the event of riots and mass civil disobedience, he says, the company is usually called “to make boards: to make boards of buildings that were supposed to protect people from entering.”
“So we would send people with the product in the vehicles to actually make those boards. Sometimes there’s a reason to get water out, all that equipment, all the generators that we would need to operate, the equipment would be sent.”
“As I said before, we are prepared,” he concluded. “All of these materials and all of the equipment necessary for our response are in place, and our personnel are ready to dispatch at any time.”
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