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Wal-Mart Takes Bold Steps To Help Emergency Response

I had the fortunate experience of conferring about this very subject with the head of Emergency Management for Wal-Mart¹ during Katrina, just shortly after their acclaimed altruism in response to the catastrophic hurricane (Barbaro & Gillis, 2005).

Wal-Mart played an important role in the overall response effort to Katrina. First they reopened their stores in a timely fashion, which made food and water available to the public. Secondly, they also donated and transported $3.5 million in basic supplies, like diapers and toothbrushes, to relief centers and shelters.

Wal-Mart encourages all of their store managers to meet and build relationships with the local emergency management department in their communities. Some managers belong to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Like California’s MOUs, this creates a relationship between the owner of emergency supplies and the government, who strives to distribute these supplies in the aftermath of an emergency.

From Wal-Mart’s perspective, they will have a quicker response to their stores when they have inside contacts and inside information provided by the local government. For them, keeping their business running is the bottom-line. From a government perspective, they can direct members of the community to stores that are open for business and not have to worry about setting up Points of Distributions (PODS) for basic supplies. It’s a win-win, and it is very surprising that it’s not more common.