We had the privilege of attending the Natural Disasters Expo in Miami Beach, FL. We joined over 350 worldwide disaster response and recovery experts to discuss how to better align with agencies and businesses to protect against and recover from natural disasters across the globe. The Expo focused on storms (particularly hurricanes and tornados), earthquakes, heat & fire, and floods. From Western Shelter’s perspective, we support responders to these different disasters with both common and tailored capabilities to meet their needs. In general, our shelters provide protection from the elements to disaster responders and emergency managers that need to worry more about their missions than setting up facilities to execute from.

As our very own Bryan Hunt covered in his presentation at the expo, choosing the right shelter is critical for optimizing your team’s performance in a demanding situation. Our Gatekeeper shelter series breaks down into convenient transported components and are easily assembled on site. Their metal frames and vertical walls optimize the balance between space and stability. Our RDS shelters come in a heavier, all-in-one bundle that assembles in 10-15 minutes and has an extremely heavy-duty frame and peerless insulation. Our inflatable shelters also come in an all-in-one bundle and can be ready to go in six minutes or less for users that consider set-up time as their top priority.

Finally, our product that drew the most attention from attendees was our MRETS trailer. It comes wired, insulated, climate controlled, and expands from 8’ wide in a towing configuration to 23’ wide when deployed. It can be ready to go in 10 minutes and will combat anything your environment can throw at it.  

Storms and Floods create an abundance of water and moisture, our shelters are engineered to withstand those elements, along with any mold and mildew that come with them. Our climate control systems help keep your team cool when it’s hot and humid outside. The floors on each of our shelters have been engineered to repel a rise in ground water to avoid saturation after storm and flood rains. 

Earthquakes and tornadoes can strike with almost no warning, and the damage they wreak can be devastating to those in the affected area. Our shelter systems are designed to be a complete stand-alone product so that when you show up where you’re needed most, you’re not a drain on the limited assets available. Our generators and power distribution systems allow you to operate 24-7, even when everyone else is in the dark.

Fires and Heat bring their own challenges to tackle. Our shelters and trailers don’t just give you a place to get out of the heat and rehabilitate; the flexibility of their design makes them ideal for fire camps where they can be configured for bunking, messing, showers/hygiene, medical or command and control functions.

Medical community customers have also found our shelters to be extremely useful. The interior of the shelters provides a level of comfort needed for working with medical patients that don’t want to feel like they’re in a field hospital (even if they are). Our Gatekeeper shelters can be set up with patient privacy curtains, air scrubbers, and climate control that provides positive and negative environments on-demand – ideal for an expanded emergency directorate or an alternate care site.

At the end of the expo, we found several partners that we’ll be working with in the future to bring even more capability and efficiency to our shelter customers. But we didn’t find any challenges we weren’t prepared to meet. Talk to our friendly and knowledgeable sales staff and see how we can help you address the challenges you’re facing in your unique operational environment.

For solutions on preparing for a natural disaster
Contact our Sales Team