Home Depot helps communities hit by Idalia
The Home Depot Foundation reported it is committing up to $250,000 to support immediate disaster relief and long-term recovery efforts in communities impacted by Hurricane Idalia.
“The Foundation and Team Depot are working alongside our national disaster relief partners as well as local nonprofit organizations to determine immediate needs and assist the people and areas impacted by this storm,” said Shannon Gerber, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation.
The Foundation said its nonprofit partners, “have set up operations in several counties in Florida and Georgia and are actively distributing relief supplies.”
Convoy of Hope and Operation Blessing shipped truckloads of materials, including several pallets of disaster relief kits, to affected communities.
World Central Kitchen is providing meals while the American Red Cross helps to shelter and support people in need.
Team Rubicon and Inspiritus are working to clear trees and debris from roadways and neighborhoods as they continue to assess damage across impacted areas.
Ahead of Hurricane Idalia, The Home Depot activated its first Hurricane Command Center of the 2023 season to support communities in the path of the storm.
More than 150 associates from the company’s merchandising, operations and supply chain teams worked around the clock to move truckloads of products to stores in Florida, including shipping pallets of tarps directly to Naval Air Station Pensacola.
So far, the retailer said, “more than 200 trucks with emergency relief products, including generators, water, tarps, plywood, batteries and flashlights, have been sent to areas that were in the path of the storm.”
The Home Depot also brought in dozens of associates to work in stores in affected communities so any associates who were impacted by the storm could focus on their own needs.
The Homer Fund, Home Depot’s employee assistance fund, is providing immediate financial support to impacted associates in need of safe housing, food and clothing while displaced.
“Our thoughts are with all the communities that have been impacted by Hurricane Idalia,” said Gerber.
This new disaster response grant takes the Foundation’s disaster commitment to more than $6 million this year.
