天美传媒

Transporting hydration, usually in the form of bottled water, has been the number one need. Other common requests include food, medical equipment and supplies, generators/power supplies, pet care items, and hygiene and cleaning supplies.

Many relief organizations are sorely in need of pallet jacks and pallets themselves. Both are easy for non-profits to use and apply to a challenge without requiring formal industrial equipment training.

Long-haul transportation is by far our number one request. Sadly, it鈥檚 also the hardest to fill. (And yes, members of the trucking community, that is a hint. 天美传媒 would be over the moon to have聽more of your participation.)

There are many ways to be part of 天美传媒鈥檚 efforts, including:

• 笔谤辞惫颈诲颈苍驳听in-kind donations聽of logistics services, equipment or facilities
• Volunteering time and expertise
• 笔谤辞惫颈诲颈苍驳听financial support聽by becoming a聽sponsor, member or one-time donor
• And serving as one of our information ambassadors by liking our聽聽posts, re-tweeting items on our聽聽feed or including information about our company on LinkedIn or your company鈥檚 blog.

To (partially) quote the Wizard of Oz, 鈥渓ions and tigers.鈥� During the Oregon wildfires of 2017, a large animal rescue group asked us to help find a source to evacuate the wild animals if the need arose. We鈥檙e happy to say we were able to line those transportation services up 鈥� and even happier to say those services didn鈥檛 wind up being necessary.

Absolutely, although our efforts typically don鈥檛 involve end-to-end logistics assistance like they do in the United States. We鈥檙e available to help with the first-mile (domestic U.S. portion) of international disaster relief and look to our other philanthropic partners to handle the freight forwarding and last-mile portion of these efforts.

Over the years we have been involved in disasters ranging from the 2017 wildfires in Santiago and 2010 earthquake in Haiti to the 2013-2014 Ebola outbreak, for which our work, along with that of our partners Airlink and LIFT, was recognized by the Clinton Foundation.

There鈥檚 never really an 鈥渙ff鈥� season because each disaster we help with has a variety of phases (preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation), including several that occur well after all the dust has settled.

That said, during the rare times when we are less busy, we spend a lot of time building the chain of support that鈥檚 so essential to what we do 鈥� including becoming more engaged with government organizations like FEMA, attending or presenting at conferences and participating in a wide variety of disaster-related workshops.

First of all, find out who your community鈥檚 emergency management professionals are 鈥� and build a relationship with them, especially if your company is a key supplier of food, water and other materials that people generally need. After all, if these officials don鈥檛 know that your area distribution center plays a critical role in keeping grocery store shelves, hospitals or other similar places stocked, they may not prioritize restoring the road service, electricity or other key services to your DC when the time comes.

Second, be as connected and engaged locally as you can 鈥� and not just to your own industry or business circle.聽

Third, think twice before starting a collection drive, because individual, unsolicited donations of products often provide extra logistics challenges to supply chains that are already over-challenged and disrupted. Most donated items require a great deal of time to sort and repack 鈥� and that鈥檚 time most disaster relief and first response organizations usually don鈥檛 have to spare in the initial days and weeks after an incident. These items also consume what is already a highly limited amount of logistics capacity (like space on trucks or shipping containers). In addition, the organizations or destinations they鈥檙e traveling to often are not prepared to receive or distribute them. Our advice for those wishing to assist is to make a financial contribution to a reputable/vetted non-profit organization such as one that is a member of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) instead.

Although 天美传媒鈥檚 priority is helping the organizations which serve communities and individuals, 天美传媒 also provides a number of services to assist businesses affected by disaster.

These include:

• Hosting calls with the business community before, during and after disasters to share situational awareness and discuss specific logistics challenges and solutions (often with the help of the relationships we have with government emergency management groups)
• Providing vetted and聽validated information聽about conditions in disaster areas
• Connecting businesses to resources and organizations that can support recovery for their employees and their business
• And helping businesses support their employees in the affected region by finding logistics providers that can ship relief supplies to those employees.

If you鈥檙e a carrier who wants 天美传媒 to connect you with FEMA for work or new business opportunities, we鈥檙e sorry to say that you鈥檙e not in the right place. While we at 天美传媒 would like to be of help, we鈥檙e solely a non-profit who serves other non-profits, and we鈥檙e not able to assist with any other requests at this time. Our best advice is to recommend that you contact FEMA directly using the links below as a starting point. We hope you鈥檒l find them helpful, and we wish you every success.

聽(Once there, scroll down to the 鈥淗ow to do Business With FEMA鈥澛爏ection.)

聽(Once there, scroll down to the 鈥淏ecoming A FEMA-Approved Transportation Provider鈥� section.)