A new report urges the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other organizations to focus more on restoring regular supply chains as soon as possible after a hurricane, and less on using parallel emergency relief supply chains for an extended period of time.

 

The report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, recommends ways to make supply chains more resilient in the face of hurricanes and other disasters. It draws on lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and was prepared at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Officials inspected flooded neighborhoods in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the days after Hurricane Maria hit. Source: New York Power Authority

Officials inspected flooded neighborhoods in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the days after Hurricane Maria hit. Source: New York Power AuthorityThe report said that other critical strategies include strengthening emergency managers’ understanding of local supply chain dynamics, improving information-sharing and coordination among public and private stakeholders and providing training to emergency managers on supply-chain dynamics and best practices.

“In 2017 Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria revealed some significant vulnerabilities in national and regional supply chains,” said James Featherstone, chair of the committee that wrote the report, and executive director of the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Logistics shortfalls

An After-Action Report by FEMA was released in July 2018 and said that personnel shortfalls and logistical problems hampered its efforts to respond sufficiently to Hurricane Maria. The storm was the third hurricane to hit the U.S. and its territories in 2017. It struck at a time when the federal emergency agency was supporting nearly 700 federally declared disasters.

The agency report says that a combination of inadequate staffing and business process shortfalls led to "challenges in comprehensively tracking resources moving across multiple modes of transportation to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands."

Map showing the path of Hurricane Irma across Florida. Source: Energy Information Administration

Map showing the path of Hurricane Irma across Florida. Source: Energy Information AdministrationThe logistical challenges in responding to a disaster on an island far from the mainland were top of mind within days of Maria's landfall in September 2017. Damage to Puerto Rico was widespread and covered an area the size of Connecticut. Complicating matters, San Juan lies more than 1,000 sea miles from Miami.

“I can’t tell my guys to put trucks on I-95 and drive south” as utility crews did in response to Hurricane Irma after it hit Florida, Mike Hyland, senior vice president of engineering services for the American Public Power Association told Engineering360 and the IEEE Energywise blog at the time. Some 28,000 workers from 30 states and Canada had the power back on in Florida within 10 days of Irma making landfall.

Logistics were more complex on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Not only did trucks, equipment and personnel need to be moved by barge and airplane to the islands, but arrangements needed to be made for fuel, food, water, security and housing.

As a result, Puerto Rico suffered the longest electricity blackout in U.S. history. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said that total electricity sales in Puerto Rico returned to pre-Hurricane Maria levels in April and May 2018.

Common dynamics

The National Academies report said that although the contexts and experiences of the storm-affected areas were diverse, some common dynamics unfolded, the report said. For example, in most places, emergency managers’ understanding of post-storm bottlenecks in supply chains was constrained by limited pre-storm assessment of vulnerable and critical parts of supply chains, together with information disruptions resulting from power and communication loss. A common source of bottlenecks in supply chains was unsolicited donations sent to affected areas, which drew critical resources away from more strategically targeted needs.

The report recommends that FEMA and other organizations take the following steps to increase the resilience of supply chains:

National guard troops helped evacuate residents of Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

National guard troops helped evacuate residents of Houston after Hurricane Harvey.1. Shift the focus from pushing relief supplies to ensuring that regular supply chains are restored as rapidly as possible. In the aftermath of a disaster, if normal supply chains are unable to supply critical items, relief supply chains are established in parallel by FEMA and other organizations to temporarily replace or supplement regular systems.

Flooding an area with relief supplies for an extended period can have the unintended effect of delaying the area’s recovery, because relief supply chains often rely on contracting local resources – such as trucks, ships and delivery drivers – that are the same resources needed by local businesses to get their supply chains back to normal.

The traditional focus on providing relief supplies should be augmented with a focus on understanding the causes of unmet demand, the report said. It recommended pursuing "strategic interventions" to help local stakeholders in returning regular supply chains to normal operations as quickly as possible.

Evacuation efforts after Hurricane Harvey struck southeastern Texas.

Evacuation efforts after Hurricane Harvey struck southeastern Texas.2. Build system-level understanding of supply chain dynamics as a foundation for effective decision-making. When planning for and responding to a hazardous event, the report said that emergency managers must quickly make numerous critical decisions about how to prioritize resources and actions. Making such decisions wisely and strategically requires having a big-picture, system-scale understanding of the supply chains operating within an area.

The report said that before a disaster strikes, it is important to understand how supply and demand drive the flow of critical goods and services into an area, how hurricanes and other disruptions can affect those flows and interdependencies among different parts of the supply chain. During and after a disaster, there is a need for real-time information about unfolding impacts that affect local supply chains – for example, what roads are blocked, and what businesses are damaged or closed – and the capacity of local stakeholders to respond to these impacts. Modeling frameworks could integrate these complex data streams and extract useful information to support decisions.

3. Support mechanisms for coordination, information-sharing and preparedness among supply chain stakeholders. "The greatest opportunities for building resilience come from preparedness efforts undertaken before disasters strike," the report said. Among the factors most critical for building supply chain resilience are clearly defined processes and mechanisms for coordination and information sharing, especially across levels of government and across public and private sector organizations.

Infrastructure damage in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in 2017. Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Infrastructure damage in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in 2017. Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers"A lack of such mechanisms can lead to duplication of efforts, gaps in service delivery, confusion over ownership of issues and competition for scarce resources," the report said. "Engagement must begin well before a disaster occurs, because it takes time to establish the needed relationships and trust."

4. Develop and administer training on supply chain dynamics and best practices for private-public partnerships that enhance supply chain resilience. Many individuals engaged in emergency response have had little or no direct experience working with private sector entities or training specifically for evaluating a disaster’s impacts on local supply chains, the report said. To rectify this situation, education and training related to basic supply chain dynamics should be provided to emergency managers and those supporting operations in a disaster environment.

As FEMA’s internal capacity and expertise on supply chain dynamics grows, the agency can play an increasingly valuable role assisting states, local communities, the private sector and other stakeholders with technical assistance and guidance, the report said.

The study was undertaken by the Committee on Building Adaptable and Resilient Supply Chains After Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The committee held meetings in four locations affected by the 2017 storms: Houston; Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

In each location they heard from federal, state, and local public officials and managers, private sector stakeholders and others involved in maintaining the functionality of supply chains before, during and after the storms. This input, together with engagement with additional experts and a case study analysis performed by the CNA Institute for Public Research, informed the committee’s work.