Clorox Task Force Prepares for Hurricane Season
By Tony Dramis, Senior DC Network Operations Manager and Arnold Mallett, Houston Plant manager
September 26, 2018. Fayetteville, North Carolina. Volunteers in the Fayetteville Warehouse work hard to load up the 14 trucks going out from that location in the morning to get them ready to go out to the community. Photo by Daniel Cima/American Red Cross
Clorox is doing its best to be prepared this hurricane season.
After several years of powerful storms, from Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017 to Florence and Michael in 2018, we know Clorox® bleach plays an important role post disaster, and we want to be sure we can supply it where and when it is needed. So in April 2019, well before the official start of hurricane season on June 1, we formed the Clorox Hurricane Preparedness Group.
With members from across the Product Supply Organization, including planning, transportation, distribution center operations, manufacturing, Global Strategic Sourcing and material coordinators, the team meets biweekly to plan for and respond to extreme weather events that may call for bleach.
We look at inventories of specific items most needed post-hurricane. We track developing storms and make sure the plants most likely to be affected, or which need to ramp up production, are prepared. We make sure transportation teams to deliver the bleach where it’s needed most are in place. And we also work with our Community Relations group to make sure we’re in touch with the American Red Cross and other disaster relief partners so we can respond promptly to any urgent requests for product donations.
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the same goes for preparedness. While Clorox can’t impact the course of these storms, we can support an efficient recovery by making sure people can access the Clorox products they need when they need them in a stressful, uncertain time.
This is simply one more way Clorox is committed to serving the communities where we live and operate.