In the 3PL Eye

On Tracking

Late September 2024. Hurricane Helene became an exceptionally powerful and devastating storm, affecting a broad swath of territory, from Mexico and Cuba to the southeastern United States.

The weather predictions have grown more accurate, which gives people more advanced notice about getting out of harm’s way. It allows local, state and federal agencies to declare states of emergency. Notice buys time.

But there’s never enough time. We can tailor predictions to particular spots ⏤ say, creeks and rivers likely overflow their banks at particular spots and low-elevation places likely to flood ⏤ but a storm is not a static thing. It fluctuates.

We never know what the aftermath will bring.

Helene was bad. They’re all bad, these disasters.

We’re always busy at NATCO. And yet this storm was particularly intense and had us managing logistics around the clock.

At one point in time, we were coordinating 52 drivers on the I-95 corridor, from Florida to Maine.

We’re not crowing about this. As always, the point is that we have responsibilities ⏤ to our customers, our communities, and to our drivers.

Never enough time. All this was important, there in the first days of October, because Hurricane Milton was bearing down on the same region.

Milton brought even harsher intensity than Helene. In its wake are some 28 deaths, $85 billion in damage, losses of livelihood and home and business and community.

The goal is to coordinate our drivers reaching their destinations safely and leaving just as safely. Alongside that, we bring essentials such as recovery equipment and building materials to the affected areas.

It takes a long time to recover from relatively brief (and too-often ferocious) weather event. This snapshot of our 52 driver along the eastern seaboard is proof that we’re able to cover the area and stay out of the way at the same time.