After more than 30 years of national and international consulting, Bob Sternhell, principal of Solutient Inc., New Orleans, is well versed in the intricacies of working with government agencies. His services include handling all the documents and transactions needed to capture federal risk mitigation grants after disasters so local governments, construction crews and homeowners can get to work.

“No single contractor or local government would have the ability to plow through all the paper work and all the negotiations,” Sternhell claims. He says it is a slow and cumbersome process that few localities are prepared for. “If there were a hurricane today, it would be six months before the government had any estimates of funds available, and then it would take two years to get the funds to people,” he says. “That’s just a fact of life in working with government. It all takes a long, long time.”