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How FedEx and UPS are helping victims of Hurricane Dorian Featured

Monday, Sep 23 2019
Logistics
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  • "Every spring the Mississippi River floods, but the downtown area of Davenport Iowa refuses to build a levee system to hold the waters back. It would block the river view. Some years the waters come several blocks up the banks and flood out local businesses."
"Every spring the Mississippi River floods, but the downtown area of Davenport Iowa refuses to build a levee system to hold the waters back. It would block the river view. Some years the waters come several blocks up the banks and flood out local businesses." "Every spring the Mississippi River floods, but the downtown area of Davenport Iowa refuses to build a levee system to hold the waters back. It would block the river view. Some years the waters come several blocks up the banks and flood out local businesses."

When disaster strikes an area, survivors are in crucial need of supplies in order to survive the hardship. In most cases homes, roads, and many structures are decimated making it tricky for survivors to access life saving goods. When a disaster hits an island – survival becomes even tougher. Hurricane Dorian barreled into the Abaco Island and Grand Bahamas at the beginning of September. The Category 5 hurricane slowed down considerably – hovering over the islands from September 1st to the 3rd  leaving considerable destruction in its wake. As of today over 1,000 people are still missing with over 70,000 homeless.

In a statement Prime Minister of the Bahamas Hubert Minnis called Dorian “the greatest national crisis in our country’s history” stated, "Our urgent task will be to provide food, water, shelter, safety and security…”

In the past the obstacle was getting the much needed supplies to the survivors after a natural disaster hit an island. Donations are made by people all over the world but there is no way of getting those goods into the hands of the survivors. This is precisely the obstacle that both FedEx and UPS hope to prevent in the aftermath of the hurricane. The delivery giants have both donated a significant amount of money and time to ensure that the supplies get to the Bahamas.  

FedEx has partnered with nonprofits; Direct Relief, International Medical Corps, Team Rubicon and Water Mission to help the hurricane victims. The company plans to donate $500,000 to the victims – part of their ’50 by 50’ goal - a campaign to help 50 million people by their 50th birthday.

The president and COO of FedEx Raj Subramaniam stated, “Many of the people in these hard-hit communities have lost everything and are in desperate need of help. On behalf of more than 450,000 FedEx team members around the world, we are proud to be able to use our global network to provide these lifesaving resources.

Like FedEx – UPS is also trying to help victims of Hurricane Dorian by donating much needed food and supplies. Together with the UPS Foundation UPS has vowed to donate $1 million towards the relief efforts. UPS partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to bring supplies to the impoverished areas. UPS supplied the plane while USAID supplied enough water bladders, hygiene kits, and water buckets to help approximately 40,000 people on the island.

Eduardo Martinez, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer of the UPS Foundation noted in a statement-  “It’s times like this when we are most grateful and honored to support the relief organizations and first responders helping to save lives and serve communities when they need us most.” He went on to say, “These efforts are just the beginning of our commitment to the long-term recovery of the impacted areas.”

Like FedEx and UPS - the supply chain and logistics industry is responsible for bringing much needed supplies to areas hit hard from natural disasters. Whether it’s the warehouses that house the donations before they can be shipped out; planes and trucks that deliver those goods or workers that pack the carriers and operate the vehicles – these companies ensure that disaster victims get the supplies they urgently need.

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Danielle Loughnane

Danielle Loughnane earned her B.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College and has currently been working in the data science field since 2015. She is the author of a comic book entitled, “The Superhighs” and wrote a blog from 2011-2015 about working in the restaurant industry called, "Sir I Think You've Had Too Much.” In her spare time she likes reading graphic novels and snuggling with her dogs.

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