NATCHEZ — What started 15 years ago as a catering company in Oklahoma City has morphed into an enormous pop-up city at the old Johns Mansville site.

The site is currently being used as a staging ground for several crews of workers that are helping to reassemble the city after Gustav.

And Swadley’s Bar-B-Q is keeping all those workers housed and fed.

Brent Swadley and Don Hanks own and operate the massive operation.

“We’re contracted to feed 1,500 workers three times a day at this site,” Swadley said.

That army of workers, Swadley sometimes calls them troops, are working for Entergy and other companies that do everything from cut trees to put up new power lines.

And Swadley’s business is a bit unusual.

In Oklahoma they operate six dining establishments but most notable is Swadley’s Emergency Relief Team.

SERT is like a city for hire.

When there’s a disaster and people are leaving an area, SERT is going in.

Swadley’s company provides, meals, bedding, lodging, in the form of tents, and even showers.

Swadley said his business is mainly divided between ice storms, hurricanes and forest fires.

“We stay busy,” he said, sitting in a posh recreational vehicle at the Mansville site.

The RV is parked at the back of the site with a full view of nearly the entire tent city that Swadley’s has set up.

The whole operation is run with a crew of just under two-dozen workers that can be seen darting from tent to tent from the window of the RV.

But the inside of the RV is also its own hub of activity.

While Swadley took a call on his cell about Hurricane Ike, Hanks and another man go over receipts and field phone calls.

In the refrigerated trailer portion of an 18-wheeler across the site Swadley’s Chef, Patrick Thomas, was busy reorganizing produce.

He summed up the whole operation briefly.

“It’s crazy,” he said.

Saturday marked Swadley’s one-week anniversary at the site and Thomas estimated they had already spent $500,000 on food.

Friday’s dinner consisted of 1,500 pounds of jumbo chicken wings and 1,200 pounds of ham.

“It’s unending,” he said.

Thomas said in a day the tent city consumes approximately 1,600 biscuits.

To keep all those biscuits and chicken wings coming in Swadley said they have one or two semi-trucks of food delivered everyday, which can be a challenge considering the areas they work in are normally in the grips of a disaster.

And Swadley said his company has the resources to run locations much larger than the Mansville site.

Swadley said the company can operate 3 locations feeding 3,000 people three meals per day — and provide their lodging.

To get from catering company to large-scale disaster relief caterer Swadley said it takes hard work and a lot of prayers.

And though Swadley and Hanks have a massive output to keep track of they both keep a surprising concentration on customer service.

Swadley said his main objective is to make the troops as comfortable as possible so they can do their best work.

“If we can improve their stay under horrible circumstances, that’s what we want to do,” Swadley said.

Hanks agreed.

“Our goal is to put ourselves out of business,” Hanks said.