ALAN prepares for Hurricane Lane

As Hurricane Lane approaches landfall in Hawai’i, the American Logisitcs Aid Network or ALAN is busy preparing – and they are encouraging their partners to do the same.

With that in mind, ALAN has created a Hurricane Lane micro-site.  It contains a wide variety of resources to keep you in the loop about everything from Lane’s latest path to how local and regional transportation infrastructure is being impacted.  Just as importantly, it will share key details about what ALAN is doing, and how you and other members of the logistics community can help.

ALAN will be updating the site frequently as events unfold, and encourage you to visit often.

In the meantime, ALAN is sharing four pre-storm takeaways that they feel are especially essential for you and your organizations to be aware of.

1. Don’t put your head in the sand.  Make personal safety a priority.

If you or your business facilities are located anywhere near Lane’s path, be sure to monitor the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and your local National Weather Service forecast for real-time details. Please, don’t ignore any warnings that pertain to you or your personnel.  Lane is expected to be a major hurricane that could produce strong winds, heavy rains, and damaging surf.

2. Get the latest detailed information about storm-related road closures, facility closures and more by clicking on the “Info” tab of our micro-site.

It should tell you most of what you need to know.  Should you need additional information about any of these things, please contact us at [email protected].  Time permitting, they will do their best to work with their emergency partners to get you an answer.

3. If your business handles critical commodities such as food, pharma or hydration in the impacted area, it’s important to let the right people know as soon as possible.

Information on supply chain disruption is often essential for emergency management decision-makers to have as they put recovery plans in place.  So if any of your area facilities or delivery services could be closed as a result of the storm, contact ALAN at [email protected] to discuss how and where that information can be securely communicated. ALAN will also want to include you in our supply chain situational awareness calls so that you have the information you need to get your business back online quickly.

4. ALAN is in touch with the Hawai’i Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and the Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency to capture any logistics needs. These needs will be posted under the relevant tab on the micro-site.

ALAN maintains relationships with emergency management and non-profit partners throughout the year so that we can rapidly capture these needs.  Although there are no “open” requests for support at the moment, this situation could quickly change as Lane’s story unfolds.  In fact, in previous years, most of ALAN requests have come several days or weeks after hurricanes have hit.   So stay tuned, and stay ready – because as requests for transportation, warehousing, volunteers and material handling equipment come in, ALAN will post them promptly.

ALAN will also be sharing important messaging about this storm via TwitterFacebookand LinkedIn , so “follow,” “like” or “join us” as appropriate.