The nearly consecutive landfalls of Hurricanes Helene and Milton made two things clear: disasters are inevitable, and they’re increasing in frequency, scope, and severity. As logistics and supply chain leaders look toward 2025, disaster recovery planning should be top of mind—not only for safeguarding business operations but also for supporting affected communities in their recovery efforts. (For a look at lessons learned from 2024, please refer to the sidebar below.)
To ensure that they have a comprehensive plan in place, supply chain professionals should take a three-pronged approach that incorporates working with local emergency organizations, nonprofits, and internal partners.
Build relationships with local organizations
A critical first step in disaster readiness is identifying and establishing relationships with local emergency management organizations. Local emergency managers specialize in coordinating immediate disaster responses on the ground in their communities. While they’re well-versed in terms of supporting the continuity of critical infrastructure like hospitals, fire stations, and city services, they’re often less acquainted with the important connection between healthy supply chains and community resilience.
When local officials have a limited understanding of the critical role that distribution centers, manufacturing plants, or food suppliers play in disaster response, it can delay restoration of the flow of supplies to grocery stores, big box stores, and similar locations. For example, ensuring that debris on roads to a warehouse is cleared rapidly following a storm may not be high on the government’s priority list. However, doing so can help keep grocery stores stocked and supply chains intact, reducing the burden on the government to provide those resources.
With this in mind, invite local emergency management officials to tour your logistics facilities and explain the critical role your organization plays in maintaining the flow of goods within the broader community. This firsthand look will help them understand how your operations contribute to community resilience and support the local economy.
ALAN has been helping to connect nonprofits with logistics resources since 2005. Here supplies are packed up for transport and distribution to Hurricane Maria survivors in 2017.Photo courtesy of ALAN
Partner with nonprofits
There are many reasons why it makes sense for members of the logistics community to build partnerships with nonprofits before disasters hit. But one of the most important is this: Even the most well-organized of them usually experience logistics gaps. Many nonprofits lack a comprehensive understanding of how to create an effective logistics organization. Even if they do have logistics staff, they will often need additional logistics resources once a disaster hits to meet surging demand for services. However, after a disaster most nonprofits are usually operating at such a high capacity that they don’t have the time or bandwidth to onboard new logistics partners.
These logistics gaps—and the onboarding challenges that disasters create—are a key reason why the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) exists. The organization has spent 19 years connecting nonprofits with the logistics services and expertise they need with the help of a well-established network and preplanned resources. ALAN works to make it easy for logistics professionals to support disaster-stricken areas with everything from warehousing to transportation to material handling equipment.
Like all nonprofits, ALAN is able to carry out its work even more effectively when organizations reach out to ask, “How can we help?” long before a disaster occurs. The most effective disaster response is based on the preparation and strong relationships that have been built during quieter times.
Companies can offer their services ahead of time via ALAN’s webform (www.alanaid.org/volunteer/). ALAN then meets with each business to determine what services and equipment it can offer in tmes of need. When there is a request that matches a business’ profile, ALAN will reach out to see if the organization can assist.
By onboarding new partners when things are calm, ALAN can ensure that resources and logistics networks are primed, optimized, and ready for immediate action. This proactive approach makes sure that critical supplies and aid can reach those in need without delay. As a result, itprovides quicker support for affected residents and businesses alike and strengthens the resiliency of communities.
The nonprofit Unity in Disasters needed 30 pallets of food transported to Jackson, Miss., to help Hurricane Ida survivors in 2021. ALAN was on hand to coordinate a response.Photo courtesy of ALAN
A culture of safety, preparedness
While community preparedness is crucial, building a strong culture of personal and corporate readiness within your organization is equally important. A preparedness culture can safeguard employees and ensure operations can resume as quickly as possible after a disaster.
In light of this, encourage your personnel to identify safe locations for shelter or evacuation, assemble emergency supply kits, and follow advice from local officials during a crisis. This responsibility typically falls to a corporate safety officer, but for smaller organizations, supervisors or administrative staff may have to coordinate the efforts.
Just as important, consider taking a page from the book of the many logistics companies that have already begun offering training sessions to help employees prepare for various disaster scenarios. Some of these training sessions are as simple as start-of-shift conversations about shelter-in-place locations or evacuation routes. Other organizations do full-scale exercises. There are lots of resources companies can pull from to develop these training sessions, including businesses that specialize in corporate crisis training. The Association of Continuity Professionals has resources, as does the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), via their Ready Business website.
Some businesses even partner with local first responders to conduct walkthroughs of their facilities, ensuring firefighters and paramedics are familiar with the layout. These partnerships provide vital information that enables emergency crews to navigate facilities more effectively in a crisis, further safeguarding employees and reducing potential downtime.
Strengthening community resilience
When disasters strike, logistics and supply chain organizations have the ability to be game changers in the best possible way, strengthening community resilience.
By building relationships with local emergency management and nonprofit organizations, they can contribute to considerably more efficient and coordinated disaster response. Likewise, sharing their supply chain resources with nonprofits ensures help will arrive faster and allows each donated dollar to go farther. And by doing what they can to protect themselves and restore the ability to deliver food, water, and medical supplies to disaster survivors, they can make the difference between stability and prolonged hardship.
Working collaboratively, logistics and supply chain organizations can help communities withstand and recover from the worst, enabling a faster, stronger return to normalcy.
Learning from 2024
By looking back on the logistics challenges of the 2024 hurricane season and reflecting on the responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we can gain valuable lessons for the future.
North Carolina faced severe infrastructure damage, including to roads, bridges, and utilities. Prioritizing road and rail rebuilding became paramount in order to reestablish connections between cities and manufacturing hubs.
Similarly, pharmaceutical facilities in affected areas needed clean water sources restored to resume production. When two separate IV fluid suppliers’ facilities—one in North Carolina and one in Florida—could not gain access to clean water due to hurricane damage, hospitals across the country experienced shortages. This disruption highlighted the importance of immediate utility restoration for critical industries.
Effective disaster preparedness must include insight into each community’s unique infrastructure and supply chain risk factors. It comes as no surprise that logistics organizations with strong ties to a community are especially qualified to help other business and government professionals understand these dynamics, which help to effectively allocate and position recovery resources.
