Disaster relief strategies and day to day normal combat operations are not so different. After my USAF service, I worked as a civilian Regional Fuel Manager for twelve years in Iraq, Afghanistan and then Iraq again from 2004-2018 supporting combat logistic operations for the US Army, USMC, DOD, and DLA and the one constant after reflection was the necessity to always maintain situational awareness or as stated “Keep your head on a swivel”.
An ever changing environment requires yourself to be surrounded with personnel to have the tools to perform their job with or without a support structure. Preparing for disaster relief in the civilian sector is no different as the need for pre-planning and training is still constant to ensure a successful deployment regardless of the duress situation.