Disaster restoration company Belfor cleaned up after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina—and its billionaire CEO says it’s ‘ready’ for post-election civil war

Right now, its CEO Sheldon Yellen is in Florida—just weeks after Hurricanes Helene and Milton have ravaged the state. It’s what he’s been doing for nearly four decades. Yellen and his team were there to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Hurricane Katrina, and the Thai floods in 2011, to name a few.

Next week, they could even be in Washington D.C. if the U.S. 2024 presidential election turns sour. It’s a scenario, Yellen tells Fortune, the company is “ready” for.

A quarter of Americans fear civil war after the election

America at a crossroads. The presidential election is just days away, yet the nation is fairly evenly split over who should run the country: Donald Trump, or Kamala Harris. 

Add to that a pattern of rejecting election outcomes, clashing over whether society’s too “woke” or too conservative, and a growing distrust in what’s real or fake news, and you have a recipe for potential disaster.

It perhaps explains why more than a quarter of Americans believe a civil war could break out after this year’s presidential election, according to polling for The Times.

Twelve percent of respondents said they knew someone who might take up arms if they thought Donald Trump was cheated out of victory. Five percent said they knew someone who might do the same if they thought Kamala Harris was cheated.

“Of course, we would first hope nothing happens, but we are prepared to do whatever we’re called upon to do,” Yellen says. “We are ready at all times, 24/7, 365 days a year.”

To be clear: Belfor is equipped for such a scenario, not because it predicts America is on the cusp of civil unrest, but because that’s the nature of the job. For example, unlike many governments around the world, Belfor was prepared for a pandemic before COVID-19 struck.

“We have a responsibility to be ready to respond, and we have all of the necessary tools to respond,” Yellen explains. 

“When that pandemic broke, we had inventory on our shelves of $1 million (face masks), people from the outside looking in would have said, ‘Sheldon, why do you have so many masks on the shelves?’ I can’t answer you why, other than in the event we need them.” 

Likewise, should all hell break lose in the aftermath of a Harris or Trump win, then, as Yellen says, Belfor is ready.

What a civil war clean-up could look like

Should civil unrest ensue in America’s capital—or anywhere, for that matter—Yellen says it would take just 60 minutes for the company to act.

“Our command centers are fully suited to be dispatched and operational within an hour,” he says.

Our satellite phones are tested all the time to make sure. Our generators are tested weekly….” he adds. “All of our protocols are always in place because we never know when that phone call comes and for exactly what it’s for. “

In the event of riots and mass civil disobedience, he says the company usually gets called to “do board ups—board ups of buildings that needed to be safeguarded from people entering.”

“So we would dispatch people with product on their vehicles to actually perform those board ups. Sometimes there’s reason for water extraction, all that equipment, all the generators we would need to operate, equipment would be dispatched.” 

“As I said earlier, we are prepared,” he concludes. “All of these materials and all the equipment needed for our response is in place, and our personnel is ready to be dispatched at all times.”

See the full agenda here, or request your invitation.