Chief Harris retired in 2010 as the Fire/Rescue Chief and Emergency Manager for the City of Rocky Mount, North Carolina; his career in local government spanned 32 years. The Rocky Mount Fire Department is recognized as one of the premier departments in the country, and they are one of only 162 fire/rescue departments worldwide to have earned the International Seal of Accreditation. Under Harris' leadership the department earned an outstanding ISO fire protection rating of Class 2, putting it in the top 1/2 of 1 percent of fire/rescue departments in the United States. Following the devastating floods from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, Harris coordinated disaster recovery programs for his community, overseeing Rocky Mount’s historical FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Under his management the city relocated over 850 households out of flood-hazard areas. Rocky Mount’s Hazard Mitigation Project was the largest single flood mitigation grant project in United States history, representing over $117 million in disaster recovery grants. Since then Harris has assisted many other communities with disaster preparedness and recovery, including areas impacted by Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and Hurricanes Ivan, Jean, & Charley in 2004. Following Hurricane Katrina, he was dispatched to the gulf region to help communities in Mississippi and Louisiana organize for recovery. Most recently he served as the NC Long-term Disaster Recovery Manager for the American Red Cross, working federally declared disasters from hurricanes, tornados, and floods. Harris has worked on numerous state and national level projects including: Homeland Security Grants, the NC Domestic Preparedness & Response Committee, development of national hurricane drills in coordination with NOAA & the National Weather Service, a flood inundation modeling & alert system for NC, development of a nationally recognized swift water rescue program for NC, and many other related projects. Harris is currently a mine safety consultant with Business Safety Services, Inc. (BSSI). He has delivered many presentations and workshops across the Southeastern U.S. specializing in hurricanes, floods, severe weather, disaster planning, emergency response, and disaster recovery. Harris is an MSHA-approved Instructor for Surface Mining.