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3 Overview of Supply Chain Impacts from the 2017 Hurricanes
Pages 27-50

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From page 27...
... Each storm individually posed substantial challenges to emergency management officials, and their occurrence in such quick succession stretched response capacities tremendously. A large part of this challenge was managing the movement of relief supplies and supporting the supply chains that provided the basic commodities n ­ ecessary for survival.
From page 28...
... Hurricane Harvey also flooded 800 wastewater treatment facilities and 13 Superfund sites, spreading sewage and toxic chemicals into the flooded areas.2 Hurricane Harvey was estimated to cause more than $125 billion in damages, making it the second most costly storm in U.S. history (after Hurricane Katrina in 2005)
From page 29...
... Over the course of the next few days, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority worked with the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and FEMA to distribute fuel and generators in order to keep critical infrastructure online across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
From page 30...
... As an 800-mile long, densely developed peninsula with just a few main transport corridors, Florida's 4  Here Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are grouped together because they share many common characteris tics, but there are of course important differences between the two locations; for example, Puerto Rico's local distribution problem was vastly more complex and the impacted population was significantly larger.
From page 31...
... South Florida, and (c) Puerto Rico and the U.S.
From page 32...
... Puerto Rico has one large natural harbor (housing the Port of San Juan, a critical node for most supply chains) , plus a number of smaller ports located around the island.
From page 33...
... Equally important were the geographical/logistical interdependencies among supply chains of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Florida.
From page 34...
... • Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
From page 35...
... Houston officials were not expecting such massive flooding that cut off most all road transport for days; Florida officials were not expecting a hurricane with a track that affected most of the state and led to the evacuation of 6 million people; Puerto Rico was not expecting a direct hit by a Category 5 hurricane and complete loss of the power grid; and the U.S. Virgin Islands was not expecting to be hit by two major storms in rapid succession.
From page 36...
... led to a surge in demand for bottled water, but pre-­ positioning of supplies seems to have prevented widespread supply shortages. One unique aspect of the Hurricane Harvey response is the region's readiness to collect and distribute food aid through an extensive network of food banks and communitysponsored or operated points of distribution; a network that essentially operated as its own supply chain, under the Emergency Food and Shelter Program.7 More than 40 trailers of food and supplies were collected and distributed through this system to cover local needs in the first days after the event.8 As Harvey's flooding increased, many parts of the municipal water system in the region failed with little notice.
From page 37...
... However, major pressures on this supply chain were alleviated by the lack of major evacuations, the limited power outages, and the fact that most critical nodes had a high inventory of fuel supply when the storm hit. Medical and Pharmaceutical Supplies Medical supply chain systems and local care coalitions were relatively well-prepared and ready to function when needed.
From page 38...
... Florida / Hurricane Irma With a long history of hurricane landfalls, Florida has well-organized systems for disaster preparedness and response. This includes a strong Emergency Operations Center with extensive networks of relationships among emergency management officials at state, county, and local levels together with representatives of industry groups responsible for maintaining the flow of critical goods and services (e.g., the Food Marketing Institute, the Florida Petroleum Council, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers)
From page 39...
... Hurricane Irma caused breaks in water mains, which led to boil-water orders in four counties, driving a surge in demand for bottled water and ice in impacted areas. Grocery chain Publix reported having a large stockpile of bottled water and ice, and yet could not keep up with demand.
From page 40...
... As the storm struck, bottlenecks at retail gas stations were further aggravated by power outages, flooding, and staff shortages, as well as the inability of some smaller stations to obtain banking credit to keep pace with the fuel demand surge. This all forced a prolonged closure of many retail gas stations, including facilities located at critical spots along evacuation routes.
From page 41...
... ; • limited understanding by government officials of the island's critical supply chains and a lack of capacity for assessing the status of those systems in the aftermath of the storm, leading to many inaccurate assumptions about what response efforts were most needed; and • multiple hurricanes in quick succession diminishing FEMA's response capacity by the time Maria struck and also exacerbating bottlenecks across many supply chains. Many of the post-hurricane supply chain challenges that arose in Puerto Rico centered around the Port of San Juan.
From page 42...
... FEMA stockpiled huge quantities of bottled water at the Port of San Juan, but much of this did not get distributed.19 Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's local water-bottling facilities remained idle for an extended time after the storm because the containers holding the raw materials needed for the bottling process (resin for bottle caps) were not considered a high priority and were not released from the port, while relief shipments of bottled water continued to flow in -- thus prolonging the island's dependence on imported relief supplies.
From page 43...
... This disruption caused supply chain effects that cascaded to the mainland United States and around the world. While many of Puerto Rico's individual pharmaceutical industry plants had substantial preparedness and continuity plans, these critical nodes in pharmaceutical supply chains were still vulnerable to the sustained, island-wide power loss.
From page 44...
... Virgin Islands were tremendously affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria (USVI HRRTF, 2018) .20 Some of their challenges were similar to those in Puerto Rico, for instance, in terms of being almost entirely dependent on ship and barge imports for food, fuel, medicine, and other critical goods; limited emergency management resources; and aging, fragile infrastructure.
From page 45...
... Many places were equipped with back-up generators, but many of these eventually failed because they were not designed to run continuously for months; obtaining generator fuel over this extended time period was also a challenge. Critical public sector facilities such as airports and hospitals received generator assistance (from the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency)
From page 46...
... Virgin Islands' medical supply distributors are in Puerto Rico, and because those companies were themselves dealing with hurricane impacts, they could not maintain normal shipments. Some medical supplies were also delayed in Puerto Rico because the boxes were not marked as "critical" until FEMA stepped in to help get them labeled as priority (an example of an information failure that created an artificial bottleneck in a critical supply chain)
From page 47...
... 22  Most pharmacies in the U.S. Virgin Islands are family-owned rather than national chains -- and this limits their ability to stockpile certain critical drugs because of restrictions in returning unsold merchandise.
From page 48...
... This was the case after Hurricane Maria, where former Puerto Rico residents in the continental United States, urged on by messaging from celebrities and an appeal from the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, collected more than 50 million pounds of supplies (possibly much more, if one includes donations sent directly by parcel) -- far more than could be handled.
From page 49...
... • There was often confusion regarding the priorities and practices of FEMA and other emergency management officials for providing generators and fuel to parties in need of assistance -- in particular priorities and practices around supporting private entities that are critical nodes in local or national supply chains. These concepts are discussed further in the following chapter, and they underlie the committee's recommended actions and resilience strategies.
From page 50...
... ~13 days Puerto Ricoc 100% [~1.6 million] ~7 months U.S.


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