Humanitarian Logistics: Shipping Designs for the Post Disaster Cargo Surge

Abstract

In 2017 Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. The humanitarian aid community scrambled a response to support the 3.4 million people affected by the disaster. In response, thousands of shipping containers filled with supplies were sent to the island. Numerous reports surfaced regarding significant delays in receiving the shipments. This research reviews the historical account of cargo throughput into Puerto Rico following Maria. A computer simulation built in ARENA compares various what-if scenarios based on empirically collected data and interviews with FEMA, port authorities, and commercial cargo carriers to determine how the humanitarian supply chain could improve for future disaster planning. An additional goal of this research is to better inform humanitarian logisticians who must balance near-term disaster response demands with long term recovery concerns.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2019
Accession Number
AD1078234

Entities

People

  • Nicholas L. Green

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Simulations
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disaster Management
  • Disasters
  • Load Monitoring
  • Logistics
  • Management Personnel
  • Marine Transportation
  • Operations Management
  • Organizational Structure
  • Puerto Rico
  • Shipping
  • Shipping Containers
  • Supply Chain
  • Supply Chain Management

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.