October 16, 2024 5:54 PM
Amazon delivers essential supplies to over 10 relief organizations across Central Florida
Amazon quickly responded to assist residents in Central Florida with donated goods, logistics support, and technology for communities affected by Hurricane Milton. We leveraged our logistics network—Amazon Air and ground transportation fleet—to move a total of 127 pallets with more than 657,000 essential supplies from our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta to a temporary relief distribution hub in Tampa.
Within 48 hours of relocating the prepositioned supplies, we donated and delivered relief items, like water, tarps, filtration systems, food distribution supplies, diapers, and flood mitigation, hygiene and shelter kits to 11 nonprofit organizations conducting on-the-ground response operations. We worked with local and national groups, including the American Red Cross, AMIkids, Feeding Tampa Bay, Gracepoint, Operation BBQ Relief, Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, and United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Counties, to get supplies in the hands of first responders supporting affected communities’ immediate needs.
To date, Amazon has delivered over 2.3 million essential items supporting 32 relief organizations, with majority of items delivered within 72 hours from the request from our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta since Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall.
October 14, 2024 4:17 PM
Amazon Air sends plane filled with critical relief supplies to Florida
Over the weekend, a single Amazon Air flight carried 100 pallets of more than 571,000 Amazon-donated relief items from our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta to Lakeland, Florida. The plane’s cargo included flood mitigation kits, tarps, water filtration systems, food distribution supplies, diapers, baby wipes, hygiene kits, shelter kits, and more. Amazon teams across the East Coast helped organize and load the pallets of supplies, totaling over 34,600 pounds of essential items.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, fuel shortages and debris cleanup have hampered the transportation of critical supplies to storm-affected regions. Amazon's Disaster Relief & Response team swiftly mobilized to expedite aid to Central Florida.
Within days of Hurricane Milton's landfall, Amazon delivered prepositioned essential supplies by air to one of our fulfillment centers in Tampa. The local operation will serve as a temporary bulk pickup location, facilitating the sorting and rapid dispatch of donated relief supplies to nonprofit organizations involved in response efforts.
Critical disaster relief supplies being pulled and loaded for transport from Amazon's Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta.
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This effort ensures that Amazon's nonprofit disaster relief partners, like the American Red Cross and Operation BBQ Relief, quickly receive the necessary supplies to support their recovery operations on the ground, even before the roads clear.
“The American Red Cross is thankful for our partnership with Amazon and their willingness to leverage their logistics network to safely ship supplies to places that are hard to reach following natural disasters,” said Grace Meinhofer, director of Multicultural Communications, American Red Cross. “With their partnership and the donated-humanitarian goods delivered by Amazon Air, including diapers and cleaning kits, Red Cross volunteers will be able to distribute assistance to people in the areas most-affected by Hurricane Milton in the Central Florida region.”
October 10, 2024 6:00 PM
Amazon rallies community support for Hurricane relief efforts
In the wake of the devastating impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Amazon is taking action to aid communities affected by this these catastrophic storms.
Our hearts go out to all those whose lives have been upended by Hurricanes Helene and Milton's wrath. As these resilient communities begin the arduous recovery process, Amazon is committed to supporting relief and response efforts in partnership with local nonprofits and aid organizations.
Additionally, Amazon has delivered more than 40 truckloads of essential items from our Disaster Relief Hub to relief partners working in the affected areas, and we will continue to dispatch Amazon-donated relief supplies as partners' needs are confirmed.
October 10, 2024 4:00 PM
Amazon mobilizes relief efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall
Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta, Ga.Photo by Melissa GoldenAs Hurricane Milton barrels toward the Florida coast, Amazon is taking measures to safeguard its employees, mitigate customer disruptions, and provide large-scale aid to impacted communities.
"Our thoughts are with those who are impacted by Hurricane Milton,” said Alice Shobe, global director of Amazon Community Impact. “We are delivering essential products and using our technologies to help front line responders stay connected as Hurricane Milton’s impact unfolds.”
Prioritizing employee and partner safety
Making sure our employees and partners are safe is our top priority. We have a 24/7 operation dedicated to providing severe weather alerts and warnings, and identifying potential hazards so that we can adjust our operations to help keep everyone safe. To date, we’ve done the following:
- We proactively closed more than 50 operations sites to ensure our employees and delivery partners safety.
- While facilities are closed, employees are being paid for their missed shifts.
- All site closures included cancelling delivery routes so Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) and their employees could take care of their families and homes, and evacuate if needed. DSPs are being compensated for cancelled routes to help them pay their employees during closures.
- We have sent more than 30,000 Wellness Checks via MyHR Support to our employees to check to see if 1/they’re safe and 2/ if they need any support or help accessing resources such as food & water, the Amazon Relief Fund (ARF), health or wellness benefits, time off options.
- Employees affected by any natural disaster can apply for a grant through our Amazon Relief Fund (ARF).
- Before we re-open sites, we conduct thorough safety inspections of the site, but if the roadways to said site are deemed unsafe, we do NOT reopen. We also offer employees flexible return to work options.
- As we get back to operating, we are assessing areas where re-establishing delivery routes may not be accessible, blocking navigation from routing drivers to those areas.
- We have a process where drivers can flag roads and areas that are unsafe. As always, we remind all partners to prioritize their safety first.
Mobilizing response efforts
We have teams ready, and on the ground to quickly assist impacted communities through our global logistics infrastructure, inventory, and technology. Amazon has trailers standing by and already fulfilling requests at our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta. Right now, we are in close contact with our nonprofit partners like the American Red Cross, Operation BBQ Relief, Save the Children, and others, and are preparing shipments of Amazon-donated items such as water, diapers, shelter kits, hygiene kits, and other critical supplies as soon as it’s safe to do so from the more than 3 million relief items that are pre-positioned at the Hub.
In addition to deploying relief items, Amazon is leveraging advanced technology and expertise to help community partners assess on-the-ground needs. Our team is positioned at the Florida Emergency Operations Center with emergency management agencies and government teams working to coordinate response efforts after the storm’s impact. Our Disaster Response team is standing by to restore connectivity and utilize drone mapping to assess devastation caused by Hurricane Milton, capturing high-resolution images of affected areas to aid responding organizations in rescue operations and relief efforts.
Our response builds on aid provided to communities across the southeastern U.S. recently impacted by Hurricane Helene. Since Helene made landfall, Amazon has delivered more than 40 truckloads of over 1.65 million essential items supporting 21 relief organizations, with majority of items delivered within 72 hours from the request from our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta. Additionally, over a three-day span, Amazon surveyed and mapped over 3,000 acres in remote and heavily impacted areas of Tennessee via drones to provide critical imagery for search and rescue missions. We’ll continue to dispatch Amazon- donated relief supplies to affected regions over the coming weeks.
Limiting customer disruption
With the temporary closing of some Amazon facilities, and likely damage to roads and other infrastructure, there may be impacts to customers in the region. We will utilize our national fulfillment network to complete customer orders from outside the affected region.
We will also adjust delivery estimates as the storm’s impact becomes clearer so customers can have the most accurate information on when their packages will arrive. Customers will see updated delivery times for their specific orders, and are encouraged to contact our 24/7 Customer Service teams for additional assistance.
Amazon, which operates 14 Disaster Relief Hubs globally, has donated over 25 million relief items to support more than 170 disasters worldwide. Learn more about our Global Disaster Relief and Response efforts.
October 3, 2024 2:20 PM
Amazon answers the call for North Carolina's youngest after hurricane Helene
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene's devastating impact on North Carolina, Amazon stepped up to provide critical aid to the state's most vulnerable residents—its children. Within 15 hours of receiving an urgent request from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Amazon delivered more than 19,500 ounces of baby formula to the Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh where the North Carolina National Guard expedited the shipment into Asheville, where many food banks and supply stores have been destroyed by the storm.
Amazon's logistics infrastructure, inventory, teams, and technology have been activated to provide rapid assistance in crisis areas. Amazon will continue assessing needs in impacted areas and working with partners to provide support.
"In times of crisis, our youngest community members are among the most vulnerable," said Abe Diaz, Disaster Relief lead at Amazon. "We're committed to supporting the incredible relief efforts underway to provide for the immediate needs of families and children."
Given the destruction caused by the storm, Amazon looked across our extensive network of fulfilment centers within a close radius to Asheville to rapidly respond to the request. Our fulfillment center in Raleigh, North Carolina responded within 90 minutes of receiving the call for support and completed the shipment in record time.
September 27, 2024 10:19 AM
Amazon mobilizes relief efforts for Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene made landfall this week and continues to batter the Southeast United States with catastrophic flooding as a tropical storm. Amazon is mobilizing resources to support impacted communities across the region. Amazon’s Disaster Relief & Response team is working closely with local partners and humanitarian organizations to rapidly deliver critical supplies to people in need.
Amazon's logistics infrastructure, inventory, teams, and technology have been activated to provide rapid assistance in crisis areas throughout Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. As emergency response teams assess damage in the aftermath of the storm, our AWS cloud computing capabilities are being used to capture high-resolution aerial imagery of affected regions, assisting rescue and relief operations on the ground. In coordination with disaster relief partners, like American Red Cross, Operation BBQ Relief, and World Central Kitchen, we will ship Amazon-donated items such as water, tarps, diapers and personal hygiene kits as soon as possible from the more than 3 million relief items that are pre-positioned at our Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta and ready to go.
“Extreme flooding poses a grave threat to communities across the Southeast right now,” said Alice Shobe, global director of Amazon Community Impact. “Amazon is using our logistics and technologies to support first responders who are helping families impacted by this devastating storm.”
Due to the severe weather conditions, Amazon is prioritizing the safety of its teams while working urgently to deliver aid. We have thousands of employees in communities affected by the storm and as such our operations buildings were closed to ensure employee safety. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and take the necessary precautions to remain safe, while supporting relief efforts in coordination with community partners and humanitarian organizations.
Additionally, with the temporary closing of some Amazon facilities, and likely damage to roads and other infrastructure, there may be impacts to customers in the region. We will utilize our national network of storage and delivery to fulfill customer orders from outside the affected region. We will adjust delivery estimates as the storm’s impact becomes clearer, so customers can have the most accurate information on when their packages will arrive. Customers will see updated delivery times for their specific orders, and are encouraged to contact our 24/7 Customer Service teams for additional assistance.
This is just the beginning of Amazon's relief efforts for Storm Helene. We encourage everyone to prioritize safety and follow guidance from local emergency officials. Additional updates will be provided on here as our response evolves.