Aftermath: What Disaster Response Taught Me About Local Love

Robert Jensen is considered a specialist in a very difficult and grim field—handling the aftermath of plane crashes, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters where there are human casualties. He is responsible for extracting and identifying bodies, returning personal belongings to the families of the victims, and offering moral support to those going through loss. For Jensen, headlines about tragedies are not just words—they are part of his job. He took part in identifying victims after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, set up a temporary morgue in the Pentagon, working at the ruins of the Twin Towers after the September 11 attacks, and evacuated bodies from the jungles of Peru after a helicopter crash in 2008.

This book isn’t only a harsh look at his challenging work, but also an inspiring story about resilience, strength, and support. His work includes the aftermath of the nuclear accident in Fukushima, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, the Swissair Flight 111 disaster, and other major incidents.

Robert Jensen is the head of Kenyon International Emergency Services, the world’s leading expert company in crisis management and response to mass disasters. For more than 35 years, he has dedicated his life to dealing with the consequences of the most devastating catastrophes, including the September 11 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2003 Bali bombings, the explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, Hurricane Katrina, the Asian tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, and many aviation incidents.