A brief story of how disaster catering works…
We’ll call him Marcus. He’s a power company lineman from – let’s say Alabama. A few days ago, the National Weather Service predicted that Maryland, northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C., would be hit with a major snowstorm, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a decade. As forecasters warned of the storm’s inevitability, power companies started calling up repair workers from unaffected states in anticipation of massive outages. Marcus and his crew members loaded their line truck with repair equipment and headed north.
While Marcus was driving up I-95, some of those same power companies put High Point Events Disaster Services division on standby, and HPE Disaster Services Coordinator Geoff Barker started working the phones.
The storm hit after midnight, dumping more than two feet of heavy, wet snow. Despite advance preparations, thousands were left without power.

Thankfully, the Alabama crew had already reached the staging area, which HPE Disaster Services had up and running. Snow had been cleared and several large tents erected. Generator cables snaked through, powering restroom trailers, a portable kitchen and heaters for the tents. At first light, Marcus grabbed a stack of pancakes, hot coffee, sausage and eggs as he went through the serving line, and, on his way to the truck after eating, picked up a substantial bag lunch. As more and more out-of-state workers arrived to help the area get its power back, the High Point Events crew got to work on a full hot meal, to be served to Marcus and a thousand more cold, tired workers at the end of the day. Even as Marcus bedded down to get some rest before heading out again, High Point’s crew started to prepare breakfast and lunch for the next day…
Let’s face it: nobody really likes to think about the possibility of disaster striking. But when it does, when emergency responders and repair crews are called in, the High Point Events Disaster Services division is called in, too. We coordinate everything behind the scenes so that emergency responders like Marcus are free to do their jobs.
Learn more about HPE Disaster Services on our new website, or contact Disaster Services Coordinator Jeff Ingram, 301.428.0650 or Jeff@highpointcatering.com . And if you’d like to be better prepared yourself for the next disaster, check out the Family Disaster Plan and FEMA’s Ready website.