The Home Depot Activates Emergency Command Center in Response to Hurricane Milton
The Home Depot activated its emergency response command center at its Atlanta Store Support Center to support stores, associates and customers as Hurricane Milton approaches Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Stores will remain open as long as it’s safe to do so. For the latest on store updates, click here.
Disaster Response Command Center Operations
· The Home Depot’s Disaster Response Command Center was activated on Sunday morning in response to Hurricane Milton.
· More than 100 expert associates across the business, including merchandising, operations, supply chain, and technology teams, are working around the clock to send essential supplies.
· The Command Center team monitors inventory in real-time so communities have the supplies they need to prepare for a storm and rebuild afterward.
· Ahead of a storm, products like generators, water, tarps, flashlights, plywood and batteries are prioritized to deploy from our distribution centers.
· Home Depot sent more than 800 truckloads of essential storm prep supplies to potentially impacted areas.
· After a storm, pre-staged trucks are placed right outside of the storm strike zone to immediately respond with recovery supplies like gas cans, generators, trash bags, cleaning supplies and chain saws.
· Home Depot stores and parking lots often serve as a home base for first responders, and the command center is a hub for communication so the company can respond to community needs.
Associate Support
After a storm strikes, many associates are recovering from the damage themselves. So, Home Depot associates from around the region rally to help support store operations in affected areas. These highly trained associate volunteers are experts in helping communities recover from natural disasters and allow their fellow associates time to focus on their families and homes.
The company also deploys resources like meals, gas, water and shower trailers for associates without water or power.
The Homer Fund, Home Depot’s employee assistance fund, provides immediate financial support to impacted associates in need of safe housing, food and clothing while displaced.
Community Support
The Home Depot Foundation is committed to supporting disaster relief in impacted communities. The Home Depot Foundation recently committed up to $2 million to support immediate disaster relief in communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Ahead of hurricane season, Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, assembles disaster relief buckets full of emergency supplies to quickly deploy to areas impacted by disaster. Team Depot donates relief supplies to nonprofits, first responders and government agencies. Volunteers also help clean up in local communities devastated by storms.
From Hurricane resources & tips on staying safe visit the Weather Center Hub.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.