State, local leaders meet in Lake Charles for Louisiana Emergency Management Conference

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Leaders from across the state are in Lake Charles for the Louisiana Emergency Management Conference.

Organizers say the conference has one goal: to find the best way to respond to disasters through innovation.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Stitch Guillory said that disaster response has improved significantly over the years.

“I think we are a lot more prepared from a comms standpoint. During Rita, we had some issues with communication. We had never really experienced a truly big storm prior to that,” Guillory said.

The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) organizes the event annually to bring together local and state leaders, disaster experts, and vendors.

Jason Mahfouz is the interim director of GOHSEP. He said the conference lets industry innovators connect with local governments.

“The goal is to continue to build those relationships across the entire emergency preparedness enterprise. There’s an adage that says, ‘You don’t want to exchange business cards in the middle of a disaster; you do it before,’” Mahfouz said.

Vendors lined an entire exhibit hall with new technologies and services specializing in disaster response. One business is Struction Solutions. Owner and CEO Dusty Lopez offers drone services for storm recovery and surveillance.

Lopez said he’s in the business because he knows disaster recovery all too well.

“I never really want people to see that, to go through that. I know how much help they need to go through that kind of stuff, so that was one of the biggest reasons why,” Lopez said. “Being from St. Bernard, we understand what it’s like to be hit by natural disasters.”

The conference continues on Wednesday and will feature a disaster response and preparedness training. The conference will end at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

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