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.
OMG it’s gonna rain in NYC!
Good luck to you. I was in J-ville for Bertha, Fran, and Bonnie. We had a hurricane party under our carport for each, although with Fran we should’a taken our dumb selves inside. I passed out at 1am and when I woke there was a six foot diameter tree lying across the back yard. Yikes!!!
The real untold story here is that the reason why Wal-Mart and other big box stores are so good at getting supplies where they are needed in emergencies is because of the profit motive. FEMA doesn’t exist to make a profit — it exists to employ government workers. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, exists to make money for its shareholders. If Wal-Mart thinks they can make money at something, they will do it. If that means sending hundreds of trucks to every area of the country affected by a hurricane, they will do it, and make a pretty penny at it as well. This is why the free market always handles disasters better than any FEMA-like agency could. Their logistical capabilities are easily 10 times better.
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At least this preplanning and hysterical hoopla over a tropical storm will do something for somebody’s economy....we all will just have to pay for it ..... at least the few of us that actually pay income taxes any more.
I work retail. You are not far from the truth with customers complaining that we only had one variety/size of bottled water, etc.
Re: earth killing, right wing , carbon emitting ,sexist ,counter revolutionary ,hate monger . I truly love being the bed rock of western civilization don’t you. 8*}
> I truly love being the bed rock of western civilization
> don’t you.
Absolutely! Whenever I see a leftist cringe, wring his hands, or get all wee-weed up over one or more aspects of my philosophy or lifestyle, it makes the sun shine a little brighter for me.
:)
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