By Lisa Soileaux

Assistant Editor

You name a place where Mother Nature has taken her toll and you will probably find ManCamps, LLC, locally owned and operated by Eric Thomas of Rayne, along with his diligently working crew.

Recently, Thomas and crew traveled to northern Arkansas during a severe ice storm that devastated the area, leaving over 100,000 residents without power. Within 48 hours, living quarters were prepared for 600 volunteers, including Entergy personnel, who were making repairs in the devastation. Within one week of 16-hour work days, only 2,300 residents remained “in the dark.”

These living quarters house 10-12 each and are provided by ManCamps, LLC and contracted through Entergy. Through a Cisco distributor and Thomas’ Crawfish Hut, ManCamps provide three hot meals for workers who are on-site for two basic types of responses: (1) hurricane events and (2) unplanned events such as manmade, natural and terror-related that happen with little or no warning.

During hurricane events, such as Hurricane Ike and Gustave recently, a three-day cone is defined, a Critical Incident Response Team is deployed just shy of the anticipated impact area, and the team coordinates crucial first phases with appropriate Entergy, Responsible Authority and stakeholders of the area.

For unplanned events, ManCamps is made aware of the possible event that may impact an area. In collaboration with Entergy, an Incident Action Plan (IAP) is developed and response is immediate to ensure a timely response to the impacted area.

In any event, ManCamps brings a quick, first response during the most crucial and initial hours of any emergency, making ManCamps one of the key strengths of a recovery process by providing Emergency Base Camp, Debris Management and Rapid Response Construction, while working with clients to ensure a smooth response to the event and long-term recovery efforts.

Camps provided can vary in nature depending on the incident called upon, including ManCamps, rigid fabric tent-like structures, aluminum units, or any other solution or combination of solutions the client requires.

Emergency Base Camps include the following assets when needed: living quarters, reception area, medical center, communications center, galley, dining hall, rec hall, utilities, exterior units to run the camp operations, fire protection/security, and water/waste water/sewage plant. ManCamps has the skills and manpower to deploy these needed quarters in a matter of hours, not days, as they are needed in emergency situations.

In a timely manner, ManCamps, along with emergency personnel, a disaster site and its victims can be helped by providing needed room and board in a rapid time-frame, thus saving precious time and lives.