Supply chain management professor offers insight to the logistics of hurricane preparedness and recovery

Auburn University Professor of Supply Chain Management Glenn Richey offers expert advice on how agencies can prepare for hurricanes and for recovery efforts.

Richey has personally witnessed numerous disasters and recovery efforts: an EF-4 tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 2011 that killed 64 and injured 1,500; Hurricanes Elena and Frederic in Mobile; civil unrest in Europe; as well as an EF-5 tornado and a terrorist event while living in Oklahoma City.

Richey is a coauthor of the article, “Disaster Resilience Through Short-Term Collaboration,” in the Journal of Business Logistics in 2017. A news release is available as well. His research helps answer:

• When should citizens be evacuated?

• How should volunteers be utilized?

• Where should critical supplies be stored and who will distribute them?

• How could businesses and government entities develop rescue and relief staging areas after the storm, and for how long?

Richey suggests the development of formal partnerships that would connect private businesses with officials from FEMA, Homeland Security and state and local agencies charged with responding to hurricanes and other threats.

Such short-term, public-private partnerships would work collaboratively to share and manage resources and information, coordinate personnel engaged in rescue and recovery efforts and re-open supply chains to mitigate shortages of food, fuel, water and critical services.