Posted on 08/27/2011 5:27:46 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
Forecasters don't expect Hurricane Irene to make landfall until Saturday. But for nearly a week now, big-box retailers like Walmart and Home Depot have been getting ready.
They've deployed hundreds of trucks carrying everything from plywood to Pop-Tarts to stores in the storm's path. It's all possible because these retailers have turned hurricane preparation into a science — one that government emergency agencies have begun to embrace.
At Home Depot's Hurricane Command Center in Atlanta, for example, about 100 associates have been trying to anticipate how Irene will affect its East Coast stores from the Carolinas to New York.
At times like this, the Command Center looks much like NASA Mission Control during a shuttle launch, says Russ Householder, the company's emergency-response captain.
"We've got all the key news agencies on the big screens up front," he says. "We're also monitoring our store sales so we can better be in tune to what's happening in our stores, and we're also connected live one-on-one with district managers in the impacted areas."
Preparing For Emergencies
Those district managers have been focusing on stocking a short list of items, Householder says, including generators, chain saws, water and tarps.
Householder says those supplies are flowing to stores because of a process that began months ago, at the beginning of hurricane season.
"We take storm product, both pre- and post-strike product, we stage those in containers and we have them in our distribution centers, really ready for a driver to pull up and pick up and take them to our stores," he says.
The system got a stress test a few days ago when Irene struck Puerto Rico, causing widespread power outages. Householder says Home Depot stores switched to emergency generators.
"All stores opened up the day after the storm came through," he says. "We opened up on time and we were there, ready and waiting for our customers."
Walmart stores in Puerto Rico also reopened quickly after Irene passed through.
Wal-Mart And Katrina
Mark Cooper is Walmart's head of emergency management. Before his current job, he was the head of emergency management for the state of Louisiana. But in 2005, he was an emergency worker from Los Angeles who was sent to New Orleans as a first responder after Hurricane Katrina.
Outsource FEMA to Home Depot
When we went through Hurriane Fran in Jacksonville, NC, the fourth day without power we couldnt take it any more. We borrowed the parents credit card and headed to Sears to buy a generator. We were informed there was a line and the generators would be there in a few hours. We waited around 15th in line and by the time we got to the front, the small generators were gone and they had only the huge 8000 watt whole house model left. We bought it...for twice the normal price, $2000. We took it home and fired it up. An hour later, the power came on.
Sears was eventually sued and forced to refund the charge acct for the extra 100% they tried to charge us.
ELIMINATE fema.
Shouldn't that be "Walmart had the foresight to hire a staff meteorologist?"
“”We’ve got all the key news agencies on the big screens up front,”
They ought to have all the big screens on trucks heading out of town. They’ll be the first things to go once all the looters show up for the things they “need” to “survive”.
Yes, it should. The problem lies with the fact leftists always try to couch things in a way that paints success with either blind luck or unfairness.
So many times it is subtle instead of blatant.
> Shouldn’t that be “Walmart had the foresight to hire a
> staff meteorologist?”
Only to right-wing, earth-killing, carbon-emitting, racist, sexist, counter-revolutionary hate mongers, like those of us in this forum.
I’ve always wondered what homeowners do with the plywood once the storm has passed. These news stories give the appearance that they buy more with each storm.
Oh, you'll get your wish. And then you'll be sorry.
Big Business IS Big Brother.
My local grocery store had pallets of bottled water in the store yesterday. They had put the 24 bottle packs on sale and customers were grabbing them up as quick as the employees were putting them on the shelves.
Canned tuna fish, peanut butter and bread were also selling out real quickly. I notices that quite a bit of the canned goods, such as canned chili and soups, had also been put on sale.
what would happen if we were to lose services for an extended period of time? the local gas stations were jammed, people were practically looting the local super markets. What’s up with the water? Doesn’t anyone keep a case or two of bottled around the house? Our rule of thumb is to have two cases per person, at all times.
My parents used to keep a trunk load of bottled water and a case of canned food in the cellar. even when I was broke, I could afford two cases of water and an 8 pack of tuna.
I always wanted to do the plywood thing but we need to figure out how/where to store it. I DVRd the episode of “Best Defense” that highlighted how to best board up your home for a SHTF scenario.
If this were an actual emergency, we would be screwed, or others would be screwed.
Nah....Wal-Mart. I think they were the first to come up with this strategy. All the others are just imitating success.
I was looking at all those empty shelves... and thought ... oh heck, this is going to bump Obama’s economic numbers up a little bit soon, and of course he will come out and say that his great socialist plan is finally starting to show results! lol
we are in Jacksonville (well, Richlands) now, and it's getting crazy here. I'm just praying my fence holds up and am thanking the guy who installed it in my head over and over for convincing us to spend the extra on the hurricane resistant shadow boxed kind, because my neighbor's gate is already gone and mine is still standing.
Good point. How about we go back to the free market?
Flood insurance, local charities, more inland construction, and the Home Depots of the world responding to market demand?
That’s what I said during Katrina.
Outsource FEMA to Lowes/HomeDepot/Walmart.
Sure, they would make a bundle of money, but the total cost to the taxpayer would be far less and people would actually get supplied.
The only downside would be the army of lawyers lined up to sue because Walmart only provided Vanilla, Chocolate, Neapolitan and Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. NO Rocky Road!
Oh the suffering, oh the humanity! /sarc
“says Russ Householder, the company’s emergency-response captain.”
Householder is aptly named.
As hard as I try, I'm still not cynical enough.
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