In the face of natural disasters, like Hurricane Laura, communities and people work together to stay safe and help one another. There are many unsung heroes that play a critical role in helping cities prepare and recover from the devastation, including the many essential workers that have been on the front lines through the COVID-19 pandemic. While people who live in the path of these storms are told to evacuate, essential personnel are the last to leave and the first to return.
The trucking industry and professional truck drivers are the backbone of our communities and are responsible for making sure that we have the supplies we need to survive. They deliver supplies during and after natural disasters, bringing critical equipment and items like water, food and generators. Construction crews quickly jump into action to make critical repairs so people can return home and to their businesses. Retail and restaurant workers return as soon as its deemed safe to re-open their doors and provide the much-needed food that was just delivered by truck. It takes a team – a community team – to bounce back from difficult times. If 2020 has shown the world anything, its that we can make it through tough times like these when we work together.
Our goal in a natural disaster is to safely keep our stores open for food, fuel and critical supplies to serve emergency crews, professional drivers and the local community. We work around the clock to monitor approaching storms like Hurricane Laura and keep safety top of mind as we pump fuel and serve guests to ensure they have what they need. Our chief operator, Jason Nordin, described how our teams in Louisiana and Texas responded in Hurricane Laura during a recent interview about the importance of truck drivers in natural disasters:
“In some cases, we’ll work with the local authorities to stay open a bit longer… We’ll work out the last possible moment to make sure we stay safe. We had six stores down for a period of time, but we recognize that we have amazing team members that work around the clock to get us up and running. We take great pride to stay open as long as we can and open as quickly as we can because we do recognize our role to take care of the first responders, take care of the truck drivers that are trying to move things not only through the market to other markets but also for the local community, for those that live there.”
At the peak of the storm, we experienced power loss and had to temporarily close 2 travel centers in Texas and 4 in Louisiana. As quickly as safely possible, we bring in generators to restore power in order to re-open our fuel pumps and stores. The Lake Charles, Louisiana area was unfortunately hit hard by Hurricane Laura, including our Pilot Travel Center in Iowa, Louisiana.
In working with the local authorities, we were made aware that the City of Iowa had an issue with their generator which was typically used in emergency situations to supply water to the town. They estimated it would take several weeks to repair and would leave the community without water. One of our emergency response team members, James, jumped into action and re-located one of the generators from another Pilot Travel Center in Haughton, Louisiana to donate for the town’s use until they could find another solution. The next morning, the city was able to hook up the generator to the water pump and services were restored to more than 4,000 Iowa residents.
Thankfully, the City of Iowa now has a FEMA generator and is working hard to repair the infrastructure. We are so grateful to have been able to play a part in helping the community and will continue to serve these areas as they rebuild.
Most of all, we’d like to thank all of the essential people that keep us going and recognize our team members for their outstanding commitment to serving our guests and communities. From the professional truck drivers to the power line workers and first responders – thank you for giving it your all, no matter what conditions you face.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the local communities, team members, guests, neighbors and business partners who have been affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Laura or are currently facing the severe fire outbreak on the west coast.
