An unprecedented series of natural disasters, some cataclysmic, created a nightmare for many living in the Americas in the autumn of 2017.
The catastrophic hurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico and caused historic flooding in Texas and Florida also triggered the largest evacuation of storm refugees in North America as tens of millions of people fled the storms. And in the middle of this horrific hurricane season, two massive earthquakes hit Mexico.
In the path of the storms, and near the center of the quake, were dozens of refrigerated warehouses, distribution centers, and logistics hubs. But despite the devastation around them, because of the best practices in disaster preparedness put into play, combined in some cases with a lot of luck, the people, facilities, and assets associated with the PRWs and other cold chain facilities all came through relatively unscathed.
Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey is tied with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone on record, inflicting at least $125 billion in damage, primarily from catastrophic rainfall-triggered flooding in the greater Houston, Texas, metropolitan area.
Over a four-day period beginning on August 28, 2017, the system slowly meandered over eastern Texas and adjacent waters, causing unprecedented flooding with peak accumulations of 60.58 inches.
Dan Mims, President of Mims Warehouse Solutions in Houston, says his facility, which consists of 26,000 square feet of warehouse and 12,500 square feet of processing space, was an island surrounded by water after days of unabated torrential rain.
“The best way to beat a flood is to get lucky on your elevation and where you build,” Mims contends. “Since my father built this place in 1961, we’ve had two major floods and both times we were one of the high spots.”
Mims says that as he’s been through flooding before, he knew what to expect. “I knew we would be dry, we never lost electricity, but we were just surrounded by flood waters so we couldn’t get to the warehouse for four days and we could not get trucks out.”
“I did have a customer’s crew there the whole time, positioned ahead of the storm,” explains Mims. “This customer had to provide food service to the temporary camps used by out-of-town utility workers deployed to help in the emergency, and using vehicles with a high-enough profile, they were able to make deliveries through the flood waters.”
But Mims also had to guarantee that the customer’s crew had electricity throughout the storm so evaluating his risk and level of uncertainty, he decided to rent a back-up generator in advance of the storm. “We never ended up using that generator, which means insurance didn’t cover the rental and it cost me $20,000 out of pocket, but not having the back-up was never an option, we couldn’t take the risk.”
“It’s also important that we kept our customers in the loop, maybe too much in the loop,” Mims quips. “In any natural disaster, you’ve got to give people timely status reports on the state of the warehouse and their product because there’s nothing more frustrating than a lack of information.”
“In hindsight, we were fortunate we didn’t get water in the facility and we didn’t lose power, but if we had lost power for four or five days, we would have run out of fuel for the generator.”
Looking forward, Mims says his company is considering acquiring a permanent generator that runs on natural gas because, “we’ve never not had access to natural gas.”
“Waiting for a hurricane is like watching grass grow,” suggests Don Durm, Vice President of Customer Solutions for PLM, a fleet management company supporting nearly 10,000 refrigerated trailers. “We start following the weather maps five to six days out and calling our customers to anticipate their needs. It’s a very controlled and managed process we go through.”
Durm says multiple relief organizations like FEMA and the Red Cross, as well as retailers and food distributors, depend on PLM as a resource when readying for a natural disaster because they have such a large on-demand refrigerated fleet.
But Durm acknowledges that Hurricane Harvey was different. “I don’t believe people took this storm particularly seriously ahead of time, because the projections were that it would blow through to Dallas, Texas.”
The PLM staff in Houston could not get out of their neighborhoods for four days because of flooding so PLM switched gears and started shuttling in trailers from Dallas. “One of the challenges we have with refrigerated trailers is if the water level gets to the wheel wells, you can have major trouble and if the water gets into the engine intake, you can damage the trailer permanently,” he notes.
To help their reefer trailers avoid the worst of the flood and protect their customers’ loads, PLM invested in the advanced technology of Coldlink’s GPS tracking system. “This allows us to overlay flood maps alongside the GPS locations of all our trailers and identify assets that were in the flood zone and use our technological diagnostics to ensure our customers’ refrigeration equipment functions properly during and after the disaster,” Durm explains.
Hurricane Irma
An extremely powerful and catastrophic Cape Verde-type hurricane, Irma was one of the strongest storms ever observed in the Atlantic in terms of maximum sustained winds. On September 10, 2017, Irma weakened to Category 3 status prior to landfall in Florida after being a Category 5 hurricane for over a week.
Like many refrigerated warehouse operators in Florida, Kevin Margeson, President of Commercial Warehousing, is very experienced in dealing with hurricanes and does a lot of business with big beverage companies that put up inventory in preparation for the giant storms, staging thousands of truckloads of water around the state by June of every year.
“We have a very formal hurricane plan as it relates to cold storage,” Margeson explains. “Our two refrigerated facilities that total 5mm cubic feet are kept at 35 degrees and have onsite generators always available when and if we lose power. Our three freezers that total 12mm cubic feet don’t have onsite generators, but we drop their temperature as low as possible and shut the doors until the power comes back on, and typically we’re fine.”
But Margeson said this storm became so big and its course so unpredictable that at the last moment they rented two generators, using a non-refundable deposit that starts at $25,000. “Had Harvey not hit Houston just a couple of weeks earlier, it would have been much easier to find a generator. But as it was, Harvey had created such a huge spike in demand for generators in one region of the country, it was extraordinarily difficult to find them but we did, and were able to hook them up in advance of the storm. It was very lucky and very expensive.”
The power went out at all of Margeson’s sites early in the storm and stayed out for 72 hours. He started running the generators within 24 hours of the outage.
Margeson notes that although he was obviously focused on getting up and running as quickly as possible after the storm to support his customers and to create financial incentive for his co-workers to return to work, most of his customers were not shipping because of storm damage.
“I would say the key lesson learned from this storm, and one which will likely result in modifications to our preparedness plan, is that we won’t rent generators in the future,” Margeson reasons. “I question whether we really need those additional generators when local, state, and federal authorities position thousands of utility trucks in advance of the storm and are so efficient at restoring electricity. If we can get electricity restored in three days, and we don’t have to open the freezer doors as a result of light volume, we’ll be able to maintain the temperature.”
“We were extremely lucky because we only lost a sign off one building and although we did not have a back-up generator, we were able to maintain temperature and didn’t lose any product and this was because we followed our plan, “notes Robert Fay, President, Florida Freezer. “That’s not to say we didn’t take a financial hit — we were closed for the five days when we didn’t have power, as were many of our customers.”
Fay points out that with this particular storm, because it was so enormous and its path so unpredictable, tens of millions of people evacuated first from the Florida Keys and southernmost points up the eastern coast and then were re-directed west across the state, only to be redirected north. “The evacuees consumed all the food, fuel and water along the way until there was nothing left,” Faye recalls. “Even if you had a generator, you would have needed a week’s worth of gas on-hand as the gas stations were manned by highway patrol officers who were making fuel available only to first responders.”
Elements of the Florida Freezer hurricane preparedness plan include bringing the freezer temperatures down to -20 F and operating at that temperature as long as possible to build up extra thermal storage. In addition, coolers are brought down to 28 F. As the enemy of cold is air, doors are only opened to take temperature readings and to check for leaks. “A lesson learned from previous hurricanes is we make our own ice packs, giant popsicles if you will, by freezing 55 gallon drums of water and putting those in the cooler to add thermal mass – like an ice pack in a lunch box,” Fay says.
Outside, any loose debris or anything that could become airborne is removed and the company’s trucks are backed up to the dock doors to both protect the doors, and prevent the trucks from flipping over.
Another element of the preparedness plan is to take out quantities of cash in advance for refueling vehicles and other needs. “If you think you have enough cash, take out three times more and then distribute it to your emergency response teams at your facilities,” Fay advises. “Technology is great until there’s no power at which point you can’t use debit or credit cards, and then once the power goes back on, the ATM machines are emptied of cash almost immediately.”
“The capital investments that we’ve made to our facility that give us the ability to maintain temperatures, such as our new, light-reflective, mechanically fastened TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin) roof and new freezer doors, paid off,” Fay notes. “But everything should be in tiptop shape to begin with – that’s just a best practice.”
Central Mexico Earthquake
The Central Mexico earthquake that struck on September 19, 2017, registered a magnitude of 7.1 and caused damage in the Greater Mexico City area, including the collapse of more than 40 buildings and the death of 228 in the city. It was the second quake to hit the country in less than two weeks.
“The reason we chose to build where we did, 20 miles from downtown Mexico City, is because unlike the city that is built on a dry lake bed, we have rock underneath us and are much less at risk,” explains Eduardo Martinez Trigueros, the Director of Frio Espacio Control. “I’ve had the opportunity to see the different costs of insurance policies around the country based on the risks related to earthquake damage and I would never take the chance of locating in a highrisk area.”
That caution paid off as Trigueros’ facility has survived three earthquakes in the past six years with minimal damage. “We have cameras inside the warehouse and could see how the racks were swaying, the videos were impressive, but only a few boxes fell over.”
In addition to the sensible site location, Trigueros’ facility is built by contractors using materials that meet specifications required by the Mexican government and with third party supervision by engineers. And as power outages for two to three days are common with earthquakes, the facility has electrical backup for 16 to 24 hours and a contract with a company that allows them to lease power for up to a couple weeks.
As part of their emergency plan, evacuation drills are conducted at least once a year and local emergency responders assist in training new personnel. “Because of the nature of our work, we have a lot of rotation with our workers so having the local fire department drill with us is very helpful and it also helps the first responders familiarize themselves with our building,” Trigueros notes.
On the morning of the earthquake, the evacuation went according to plan and after it was over, small teams of designated employees went inside to check the facility and an engineer conducted a structural check. Three hours after the earthquake struck, Trigueros’ teams were back at work. “We had no idea how bad the earthquake was until we saw the coverage on television and on the Internet.”
After things settled down, Trigueros’ managers and the heads of the different safety teams met to evaluate their safety performance. “Everything went well but it was a reminder that best practices means never forgetting drills and always being prepared. We can’t relax because we’re in earthquake country, but every warehouse should be prepared for the unexpected.”
Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria is regarded as the worst natural disaster on record in Puerto Rico. Maria had weakened to a high-end Category 4 hurricane by the time it struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. The island suffered catastrophic damage, including destruction of its previously compromised electrical grid. For weeks in Maria’s wake, most of the island’s population suffered from flooding and lack of resources, compounded by the slow relief process.
John Williams, President of Sterling Merchandising, operates a highly specialized facility that is 100 percent dedicated to direct-store delivery of ice cream. Family owned and operated since 1993, Sterling sits on just over three acres of land in Puerto Rico. And incredibly, the facility came through the storm intact, other than the loss of gutters and downspouts, impact from flying debris and some damage to trucks.
“Our basic plan to prepare for a hurricane is to place computer CPUs on the desks in plastic bags, eliminate any loose items that could be flying debris, and strap all condensing units down with prepared eye bolts and cable.”
However, what Williams really attributes the facility’s safe passage through the storm to is building above Dade County Standards, which he says are some of the most stringent. “Our structural engineer added columns to each truss which helps with uplift. The Metlspan screw schedule is firstclass and very important, and we also used 22 gauge on both sides of the panel. We used a standing seam IMP roof versus the standard deck and build-up roof and I think that should be considered the gold standard. We didn’t have even the smallest leak and most of the membrane roofs on the island failed catastrophically.”
Williams says they resumed business within a week, but most of their customers did not want product because they were running on generator power.
“We were lucky in the sense that our primary is a 38K line and those came back on line first,” Williams acknowledges. “However, we did run on 100 percent generator for about 45 days. We ordered a second backup generator within two weeks because auxiliary generators are not designed to run as primary or continuous power. We were very concerned our generator could quit and we would lose $1.5 million in inventory.”
Williams says 70 percent of the company’s employees could not get out of their neighborhoods because of washed away roads and other storm damage. In addition, communication was non-existent and Williams says it was difficult to assess damage until everyone reported to work about eight to nine days after the storm.
“The biggest obstacles immediately after the storm were security; roads made inaccessible by debris, fallen power lines and trees; and diesel fuel was scarce or not available,” Williams notes. “We tried to go out within two weeks with double and triple the personnel in each truck but our teams were very nervous about their safety so we decided to take another week before going back out. At that point, we went out in cars to canvas our customers and see who was up and running and wanted service. By the fourth week after the storm, we were selling at about 20 percent capacity. “
Looking back on lessons learned, Williams says that it was a mistake to not leave a skeleton staff onsite. “Someone has to stay to shut off power before the wind gets higher than 30 knots and that person has to be in charge of inspection before firing up backup power to ensure there are no potential issues with shorts or fire.”
Williams also suggests that for a Category 4 or 5 storm, all trucks should be emptied into the main facility and all non-essential power shut down hours before the storm makes landfall.
“Facilities like ours should have a second generator that is prime or continuous rated, sized to run at no more than 60 or 70 percent of the critical load to keep the warehouse at temperature. In our case, a 500kw generator is a good size for standby power requirements, but half that is better for the prime/ continuous emergency generator.” Williams says that’s because access to diesel was a huge concern and not because of shortages, but because the logistics did not exist to transport the diesel to where it was needed.
“We now own a generator that is sufficient to run the equipment necessary to keep our freezer at -15F, and we have fuel storage for more than 30 days versus prior to the storm, when we only had fuel for three days.”
Finally, because there was a shortage of filters and 15W40 oil across the island almost immediately, Williams says in the future, their generators will have 60 to 90 days of fuel filters, oil filters, air filters at 24/7 run times, and spare belts on hand as well.
Alexandra Walsh is a Senior Publishing Consultant with Association Vision and Managing Editor of COLD FACTS. This article was originally published in the March-April 2018 issue of COLD FACTS Magazine.
