The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) reports that in 2024, there have been 19 billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events that have brought death and destruction in the United States. Storms, wildfires, and severe heat and cold waves have resulted in nearly $50 billion in damages.
While many of us do our best to get out of harm’s way, Brian Evans runs toward them. Evans restores the phone network during natural disasters for AT&T, and he also is the lead chef for the company’s mobile disaster basecamp. Evans says that both of his jobs require quick thinking and decisive action, and recently shared his tips for managing crises big and small.
Please explain your role as a chef and tech recovery expert. How do those skill sets overlap?
I restore the network during natural disasters as an AT&T tech recovery expert, and I have become the lead chef for the natural disaster recovery team, where I bring in a mobile kitchen to support our folks at our basecamp. Last year I was on the ground in 42 states.
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To lead a large-scale cooking or natural disaster recovery effort, you need to be able to plan for many phases at once. When we come into a disaster area, the basic infrastructure for the city is often out, and so the job can last anywhere from a week to a month. You quickly need to get ahead, so it’s about balancing preparing the first meals along with coordinating with external vendors for resupply, which can be very challenging after a storm.
Photo credit: AT&T
What advice can you give to entrepreneurs about wearing multiple hats?
Make sure you have alternates who can manage things if your day-to-day lieutenants aren’t available because you need to stay on track in both of your worlds. I have a network of volunteer responders from 46 departments at AT&T who have been trained to support our natural disaster recovery efforts, and I maintain a corps of kitchen trailer volunteers with different skill sets in different regions. Make sure your bench is spread out — we’ve set up 12 different stops across the US for training so that wherever we are, there’s a backup nearby.
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And while you’re ensuring execution is tight, also know how to communicate the value of both programs to your superiors at any time. This high-level vantage point can easily be forgotten when you’re in the thick of things, but it is important. When I really needed a bigger mobile operation to handle scale, I was able to clearly show my superiors why it was so important to our first responders and how it was cost-effective, so they increased our resources to make the program truly national.
What’s your advice for entrepreneurs about moving fast and staying smart?
Protect your set-up phase and then you move quicker with everything else. You don’t want to “cook up a storm in a storm.” During stressful situations, it’s easy to want to rush to meet your team’s needs, but creating a plan makes a world of difference. We were on the ground during Hurricane Ian, for example, and it would’ve been easy to go into panic mode with 150-mph winds. Instead, my team got a headcount in advance, assessed the severity of the situation and then got to work on meal planning, ordering supplies and cooking so that our employees would have a hot meal at the end of a long day. As an entrepreneur, you’ll be in stressful situations that you need your team to push forward through, and a key part of that is maintaining morale, finding creature comforts, and breaking bread together. That was a key part of my upbringing in rural Louisiana.
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From what you’ve seen in natural disasters, what do you wish all people kept on hand in their homes and cars?
Everyone on my team carries a “bug out bag” aka a survival or emergency kit at all times. They contain everyday necessities that aren’t usually available during a disaster like extra clothes, water, blankets, snacks, etc. I always recommend that others have these items available all in one place so you can easily grab them at a moment’s notice. Of course, the hope is you won’t ever need it, but at the very least, you’ll have a little peace of mind knowing you’re prepared.
What does every entrepreneur need to know about leading a team during a crisis?
When I first started working in disaster preparedness, I was still a bit unsure of myself, but teams need a leader who is confident. So as I was figuring things out, I would picture the most confident person I could think of and try to embody them. The team looks to me during challenging missions and if I fall apart, they’re sure to follow suit. Whenever possible, I try to remember to take a few minutes to decompress if I start to feel myself getting overwhelmed. An emergency is already a high-stress situation and as a leader, how you react affects the success of the team for better or for worse.
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