VOL. 126 | NO. 187 | Monday, September 26, 2011
By Andy Meek
Updated 3:11PMIn remarks to the National Press Club in Washington earlier this month, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani singled out two people in his administration as being largely responsible for helping him make it through a day that started like any other day in 2001 but changed the course of the nation?s history before it was over.
Richard Sheirer, former director of New York?s Emergency Management, stands with a Girl Scouts troop after speaking at the Children?s Museum of Memphis as a guest of the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club.�
(Photo: Lance Murphey)
One of those two people ? Richard Sheirer, the city?s former commissioner of Emergency Management ? helped take charge of the massive cleanup and recovery effort in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. New York Magazine described him as the ?Man Behind the Mayor,? and he came to Memphis a few days ago as a guest of the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club in part to underscore September as National Preparedness Month.
?It?s so nice to hear a Southern accent,? he said with his thick New York brogue to his audience at a reception at the Children?s Museum of Memphis Thursday, Sept. 22.
His message of the day was simple. Be prepared. Have a plan.
Homes can be damaged by fire. Earthquakes can strike. Terrorists can knock down buildings, killing thousands and wounding a city.
Sheirer stressed to keep a ?go bag? at the ready and filled with basic necessities, identification, prescription and insurance paperwork ? all the must-haves for everyday life.
On the disaster preparedness side, he had some suggestions about key ingredients for the official response. The decision makers should betogether, face-to-face or at least close to it, mapping the response.
?No battle of the badges. No turf wars,? he said. ?Catastrophe knows no turf.?
Sheirer said the events of Sept. 11, 2001, came at a point in his life when he was expecting to retire and ?do something less taxing.? He recalled what he said were three Mexican firefighters who?d driven up to the city for more than 50 hours in a rickety bus, eager to help.
?Those are the kinds of things that never escape your mind,? he said.
Jan Young, executive director of The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc., preceeded Sheirer?s remarks with a moment of silence and a respectful word of thanks to ?the finest of Memphis and Shelby County? who, like the first responders on Sept. 11, 2001, go to work on every ordinary day like they did, not always knowing what will be around the corner.
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/sep/26/be-prepared/
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