Retailers step up to provide hurricane relief
Major retailers including Walmart, Amazon and Home Depot are donating money and services to help victims of severe storms which have wracked the Southeast U.S.
In the past two weeks, Hurricanes Helena and Milton have struck and caused major damage across states including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. Following are overviews of some of the remedial efforts major retailers with operations in the affected areas have been taking:
Walmart
On the heels of Hurricane Milton, Walmart, Sam’s Club and the Walmart Foundation are extending their commitment to support hurricane relief efforts to $16 million across impacted communities.
This is a $6 million increase to the $10 million previously committed for relief and recovery efforts in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas from Hurricane Helene, which included a partnership with country music icon Dolly Parton.
[READ MORE: Walmart teams up with Dolly Parton, donates $10M to hurricane relief]
As part of that commitment, on Sept. 30 the company launched a nationwide campaign allowing customers and members to donate to the American Red Cross’ hurricane relief efforts at checkout in stores and on Walmart.com.
According to Walmart, customers have raised more than $7.7 million to date, and today the company is announcing it will extend the campaign through Oct. 20.
Amazon
Amazon has created a cash donation page enabling individuals who would like to help to directly contribute to established humanitarian organizations. The e-tailer says that every dollar contributed will help deliver critical supplies, temporary shelter, medical care, and other emergency assistance to those in need.
In addition, Amazon has delivered more than 40 truckloads of essential items from its Disaster Relief Hub located near Atlanta to relief partners working in the affected areas, and will continue to dispatch Amazon-donated relief supplies through the next few weeks.
Amazon has also been utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing capabilities to capture high-resolution aerial imagery of affected regions to assist rescue and relief operations on the ground.
Home Depot
The Home Depot Foundation is committing up to $3 million to support immediate disaster relief in communities impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
This incremental funding on top of the foundation’s annual disaster grants brings the total amount committed to relief efforts this disaster season to more than $9 million, according to Home Depot.
The Foundation’s nonprofit partners are mobilizing to assess damage, deliver relief supplies and meals and begin cleanup across the communities in Florida devastated by Hurricane Milton, including those still recovering from Helene’s strike two weeks ago.
Since Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the Southeast, Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, has packed more than 6,500 disaster relief kits including essentials like cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE), trash bags and more to be distributed in disaster zones. Similar efforts are underway to help those impacted by Hurricane Milton.
Before Hurricane Milton’s landfall, The Home Depot activated its Disaster Response Command Center, which brings together more than 100 expert associates across merchandising, operations, supply chain and technology to ensure communities have the supplies they need to prepare for and rebuild after a storm.
Other retailers donating money and supplies and working with non-profits to provide hurricane relief include Dollar General, Gopuff, Lowe’s and Publix.
