Tractor-trailers loaded with supplies for areas struck by Hurricane Matthew are being dispatched from metro Atlanta.
Home Depot has activated its disaster-response command center at its headquarters in Cobb County, Georgia.
The command center opened at 1 p.m. Wednesday, and depending on the weather along the Florida and Georgia coasts, it could stay open around the clock.
>> Hurricane Matthew: Live updates as storm approaches the East Coast
Across three large conference rooms on an upper floor of the corporate headquarters in Cobb County, hundreds of eyes and ears are glued to the weather forecast.
"This morning, as we got an update on the storm's path, we quickly decided to activate our disaster-response command center," Home Depot's Stephen Holmes told WSB-TV’s Berndt Petersen.
The command center is tracking Hurricane Matthew and rushing supplies to the Florida and Georgia coasts.
About 350 employees are ordering tractor-trailer loads of plywood, generators, tarps and batteries, and arranging delivery to hundreds of the company's warehouse stores across the two states.
The center can run 24 hours a day if necessary. It has done this before when hurricanes made landfall either on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts.
But right now, the plan is to operate for at least the next two or three days. And that plan is in full swing.
“The trucks are rolling from Atlanta, from our Hurricane Distribution Center in Lakeland, Florida – feeding the stores.
"We also have a distribution center in the Northeast to make sure if we need to move product there, we can do that, as well," Holmes told Petersen.
The company says that right now, the key areas where supplies are being rushed are south Florida and Savannah.
About the Author
