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Katrina and Rita Demand Answers

As I write this, Hurricane Katrina survivors are still trying to repair their lives and Rita is busy launching her own attack on the Gulf Coast. If there’s anything we should learn from these two, at-one-time category 5 windbags, it’s how thin the boundary line is between modern and primitive societies. Snap our supply chains and human nature is freed to exercise its good and evil extremities.

Amazingly enough, the news media always find ways to keep their mirrors trained on our Jekylls and Hydes, forcing audiences to look at their reflections. As a member of the media, specialized though our medium may be, let me give you a glimpse of Paperboard Packaging’s audience. What follows is the text from an email sent by one of your fellow readers.

“I run a small corrugated sheet plant in San Antonio, Texas. What can we do to help the people in New Orleans? I have donated money, clothing and food. How can I help the small mom and pop businesses like mine, that have lost everything?”

When I first read this, it was the morning after Katrina did her worst with New Orleans’ levies. At first I wondered, why is he asking me? Then it occurred to me, he’s asking me because he represents a readership that not only asks the right questions, but has the power to respond with the right answers. Here’s part of the response I gave him:
“Right now cash, and lots of it, is the best answer. Contact the American Red Cross. In the near future, people will need to get their lives back together. That means jobs. If you’re looking to hire, keep your doors open for candidates from this area if you can — or direct prospects to the companies of colleagues in the region whom you know are hiring.
“If you’re a member of a professional association like AICC, TAPPI, FBA and PPC, contact them and ask how their memberships can organize education, training and employment efforts for displaced workers from this region. Make use of your personal and business networks, as well.”

That was the best answer I could think of at the time. But a week or so later, as Rita was gestating out in the Atlantic, the magazine editorial staff had a brainstorm of its own. “Let’s blog for more answers.” Yes, Paperboard Packaging has its own blog (http://paperboardgroup.blogspot.com), and if you visit our website, you can weigh in on Katrina, Rita, or any of the other topics of importance to our readers. Before you go there, however, let me show you the answer another Paperboard Packaging blogger added to mine in reference to what we can do for the small businesses devastated by the storms:
“There are 168 hours of available production time in a week. If you are not using all of it, offer that time to run the production of [sister companies in the region]. Many of those companies supplied customers outside of the stricken region and these customers still need the products. This will help the stricken plants ensure that they will still have a customer base to return to when their manufacturing returns.”

I hate to say it, but Katrina and Rita may have performed a service by giving this country a wake-up call. Just as every good business needs a disaster recovery plan, so do the managers of every state in our union. Even FEMA can stand a refresher course on disaster preparedness, if its performance this time indicates the state of its art.
Paperboard converters in the Gulf region have set a great example when it comes to
recovery. As time passes and begins to heal those most injured by these disasters, it will take logistics professionals like you, who supply the packaging and support services
required by the manufacturers enabling our way of life, to provide even better answers than the ones on this page.