The Federal Emergency Management Agency has gone into high gear in anticipation of Hurricane Ian.
The need to transport water and meals into affected communities will have the greatest immediate impact on trucks. FEMA stated in a statement that supplies are being staged at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Among the supplies are 3.5 million liters of water and 3.6 million meals.
FEMA reported it has over a million liters of water, over 480,000 meals, and over 7,200 cots in Alabama. According to the agency, “more supplies are en route.”
Last year, in the run-up to Hurricane Ida, which devastated Louisiana, FEMA’s media relations team provided FreightWaves with details on their deployment of trucks for rescue operations. It announced two days after landfall that it has contracted with 1,571 vehicles “and counting.” It also stated that it has over 250 “pre-approved transportation service companies” that FEMA uses to carry supplies. It has no allocated capacity.
FEMA stated at the time that transportation providers included truckload carriers and 3PLs.
“While water and meals are the most common uses of trucks, we also transport generators, cots, blankets, tarps, and other response items,” the agency noted in the run-up to Ida.
FEMA will conduct a press conference on Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT to outline the next measures.
