On December 11 and 12, 2024, public and private sector stakeholders from the U.S. South and Midwest gathered with the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab to discuss the challenges of responding to fuel supply chain disruptions during natural disasters. The Fuel Supply Chain Roundtable reflected on lessons learned from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and framed concepts that could be developed into a “Fuel Response Playbook” for future disasters. The event closed with the group considering one such possible disaster, a major earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone in the Midwest, which the MIT lab is currently studying.
One takeaway became clear: fuel is a top priority in a natural disaster response, as it is essential for facilitating access to food, water, and other essential goods, for evacuation efforts, and for generators that provide emergency power. “If you don’t have fuel, then you don’t have a response—period,” said Jarrod Goentzel, founder and director of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.
The first day of the roundtable focused on reviewing the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, highlighting the disruptions caused by communication breakdowns, flooding, damaged infrastructure, limited access to fuel terminals, increased demand for fuel, and shortages of truck drivers and other workers. Key lessons from these storms included the importance of communication through daily coordination calls among stakeholders and the need for prompt waivers from state officials to expand limits on truck drivers’ hours of service and fuel truck weight restrictions, among others.
The second day of the roundtable focused on framing concepts for a potential Fuel Response Playbook, which could serve as a resource for private and public sector stakeholders to minimize fuel supply disruptions during natural disasters. This is especially important for states that do not experience frequent natural disasters, like some that would be affected by a New Madrid earthquake. The playbook would include recommendations for key private and public stakeholders such as: build relationships with each other now (before a disaster occurs), enhance data-sharing systems to track real-time conditions like fuel inventory and road status, engage in legislative advocacy to attain pre-approved regional waivers across state lines, and prepare effective public messaging to prevent panic-buying.
This event was just the first step in considering the Fuel Response Playbook. The participants from this roundtable will meet in Memphis, Tennessee on January 28-29, 2025, for further fuel conversations. They will also join participants from retail, transportation, and related sectors to consider a catastrophic New Madrid earthquake in advancing supply chain preparedness. “We’re not focused on writing plans for scenarios that we can solve, we’re preparing for the catastrophic problems we can’t solve—wicked problems,” said Goentzel. Kathy Fulton, Executive Director of the American Logistics Aid Network and one of the roundtable’s participants, agreed, “We don’t know when any of these disasters will happen, so we have to act now.”
If you would like a copy of the roundtable summary, email humanitarian@mit.edu.