AISI Joins ProtectingAmerica.org

AISI has joined ProtectingAmerica.org and teamed up with first responders, disaster recovery experts, insurers and small and large businesses in calling for better ways to prepare and protect American families from natural catastrophes.

"The importance of modernized structures, especially homes, can not be understated. Hurricane Katrina left behind 140,000 uninhabitable housing units, a number that could have been greatly reduced with strict building codes and advanced building practices," said Andrew G. Sharkey, III, president and CEO of AISI. "Our goal is to ensure that homes, offices, bridges, utility poles and other structures are not only rebuilt, but rebuilt stronger. With enough effort and the help of organizations like ProtectingAmerica.org, we can ensure that unsafe bridges and blue tarp communities are images of the past."

ProtectingAmerica.org was formed in 2005 to lead a concentrated effort to improve the way America prepares for and protects its families, communities, consumers and economy from catastrophe. It has a mission to minimize the impact of a catastrophe through better building codes, expanded disaster preparedness education and reliable funding.

"When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the American Iron and Steel Institute was a leader in deploying resources to implement enabling technologies for surviving future storms. Such forward-looking and preventive programs are the epitome of ProtectingAmerica.org's comprehensive solution to prepare and protect America before catastrophe strikes," said ProtectingAmerica.org co-chair and former FEMA Director James Lee Witt.