Some areas of North Carolina are still cleaning up from Hurricane Debby. Helping people and cities clean up after a disaster is something North Carolinian Shaurice Mullins knows a lot about. For 25 years, Mullins, CEO and founder of Elite Disaster Consulting, has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state emergency management agencies in cleanup operations following tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes.
Mullins, who has a new book out on overcoming challenges and achieving success, “The Invincibility Code,” talks to WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn about her disaster relief work. She says that the road to success was not always easy.
Dr. Shaurice Mullins: So, I grew up in a little town. It’s called Stokes, North Carolina, and then I later moved to Greenville, N.C., so life growing up for me was a little country girl walking down dirt roads just dealing with abject poverty. I had one brother growing up. My brother and I were pretty much latchkey kids. My mom worked, and we pretty much took care of ourselves.
Gwendolyn Glenn: I was reading your book and you wrote that two days before Christmas (one year), you guys lost your home. Tell us about that.
Dr. Shaurice Mullins grew up in poverty in rural North Carolina. Today, she is the CEO and founder of Elite Disaster Consulting.
Mullins: Yeah, we were evicted because my father did not pay the mortgage and also my father had went to prison. We moved into a rundown trailer with holes in the floor, no heat, and we literally took duct tape and taped up the windows in the home and took washcloths and stuffed them in holes in the floors until we could afford to get a kerosene heater to heat the home.
Glenn: Mullins worked at a fast-food restaurant to help her mom with bills and became a single mom herself shortly after graduating from high school. She married at age 20, had five children, and later divorced. Then Mullins enrolled in college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in emergency management and homeland security and a Ph.D. in philosophy and holistic health. Through her company, Mullins has worked across the South and Puerto Rico following disasters such as hurricanes Floyd in 1999, Irene in 2011, Sandy in 2012, and Ida in 2021. Mullins says a personal experience led her to a career in disaster relief.
Mullins: So, in 1997 my home was destroyed by a tornado. Half of it was still standing, and the other half was in the field. And so, the American Red Cross came in. The different organizations came in and the (NC) Emergency Management Division was there on site as well, offering us help. And I asked, “How are you guys assisting me?” Because keep in mind they came in and helped, assisted us with somewhere to live. They gave us hot meals for a month, you know, until we could replace, were placed back in our home and I was told that it was the Emergency Management Division. And at that time, I was very interested in helping because I love to give back. And I said, “That’s just what I want to do.” I had had the opportunity to do some volunteer work and work as a community specialist with North Carolina Emergency Management and I absolutely loved it and I just decided, look, this is what I want to do for a career. And yes, when (Hurricane) Debbie was coming this way, I was tracking it, seeing how it’s going to impact North Carolina and what we needed to do to get prepared and ready to respond.
Glenn: What exactly do you do in terms of emergency management?
Mullins: I have three companies, one headquartered here in North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and another in Florida. I have over 250 people in my company and when disasters happen around the world, I actually work with states, municipalities and cities that need my assistance. I contract with them to provide staff to assist them with repairing and replacing infrastructure. We also assist our clients with their claims to submit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA to request reimbursements for funds that they’ve spent before, during, and after the disaster.
Glenn: I see that you have worked on tornadoes in North Carolina and also Hurricane Floyd. Tell me, what was that like and what did you start doing?
Mullins: We had, I think over 800 or close to 900 applicants who were displaced. We had close to $2 billion allocated to North Carolina and I worked on a rapid rehousing project to get individuals placed back into homes after the disaster.
Disaster relief expert Dr. Shaurice Mullins of North Carolina signs a Memorandum of Understanding between her company, Shaurice Mullins International and Tresor Women Warriors, and COIF – Coaches Of Influence Foundation in The Gambia. Mullins has spearheaded projects in The Gambia that include the installation of boreholes, deep wells, and light poles to provide clean water and electricity in the region.
Glenn: You worked a lot in Puerto Rico and you say you have a company there in Puerto Rico. What are some of the worst situations you’ve come across where you’ve had to come in and help?
Mullins: One of my main clients that I work with there is the Department of Corrections. They had inmates displaced and inmates who escaped due to their fencing being destroyed. They had $23 million in electrical fences destroyed due to (Hurricane) Maria. We’ve assisted them with their generator projects. They were without power for up to five months in Puerto Rico and believe it or not, we’re still working on those buildings today.
Glenn: What year was that?
Mullins: That was 2017.
Glenn: Now Ernesto just hit Puerto Rico. What are you doing down there now?
Mullins: I received a phone call today from our point of contact there. My staff just left there in June still doing assessments for Maria on the 12 complexes we’re working on. For Ernesto, we’ve already talked to them about doing a preliminary meeting on exactly what they need.
Glenn: And what about locally, what kinds of things are you telling officials to look for and to be prepared for?
Mullins: What I find, even here in North Carolina, is that when we’re impacted by a disaster, it’s not enough to put infrastructure back to predisaster conditions because if another disaster comes, it’s going to do the same damage. So, I’m always talking to officials and individuals about what are you doing to make your infrastructure stronger than it was before we were impacted. I’m always super hyped about, are we prepared?
Glenn: And do you think the state is prepared?
Mullins: I think we’re more prepared than we were in 2012 and more prepared than we were for the tornadoes and Irene. I really do think that we’re more prepared.
Elite Disaster Consulting
Elite Disaster Consulting, founded by Dr. Shaurice Mullins of North Carolina, sends employees throughout the south and Puerto Rico to provide cleanup assistance following disasters. Mullins’ company provided essential assistance to individuals, FEMA and state and local officials after hurricanes Floyd, Irene, Sandy, Maria and Ida.
Glenn: Anything else you’d like to talk about or tell us about the worst disaster you’ve ever worked on?
Mullins: The worst disaster I’ve ever worked on is Sandy because of the total amount of damages, you know, and I worked Sandy for five years in New York. So, I would say Sandy’s No. 1 and Floyd was my No. 2 worst due to the death toll.
Glenn: Tell us about some of the people who you actually helped and what did they need.
Mullins: We needed to supply water, we needed to supply food, shelter, clothing, because a lot of people lost everything, even their family members.
Glenn: And you said you helped people in terms of burial arrangements and those kinds of things as well.
Mullins: Yeah, so for North Carolina, during Irene, we had an ‘other needs assistance’ hotline because people lose their medications during disasters, they lose their eyeglasses. You know, people lose family members. One of the worst stories that I heard was a woman coming in. She had lost her home, but she had lost her son. I was working in Pamlico County at that time and we were able to step in and assist her with the funeral arrangements. I always say it’s mission work for me and outside of disaster recovery, I work with women and business owners and that want to scale and grow their businesses.
Glenn: That’s a perfect segue. You have a new book out now, “The Invincibility Code: How to Shift the Trajectory of Your Life and Crystallize a New Reality.” Tell me briefly about that book.
Mullins: So, in that book I give the seven practices and the seven codes that I implemented in my life to carry my life from abject poverty to a millionaire and one of the ones that I like to talk about the most is the power of selfishness. What you need to do to take care of you, and I know selfishness gets a bad rap but you cannot provide and do for others until you are 100% doing it for yourself. Hey, if I can do it, a little girl from Stokes, North Carolina, walking on a dirt road and came from abject poverty, you can do it too, and be anything you desire.
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Publish date : 2024-08-23 13:25:00
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