Author: Julia Hazel, PhD
Hurricane Helene has reached Category 4 hurricane status as of Thursday evening as it hit landfall over Florida’s Big Bend region with 140 mph sustained winds.
Aside from the winds, catastrophic storm surge of potentially up to 10 to 20 ft is expected along Florida’s west coast, which the National Weather Service has deemed “Catastrophoc and unsurvivable”.
Based on current forecasts and the storm’s speed, Helene’s impacts will extend well-beyond Florida, with North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, along with Florida all declaring states of emergency and many parts of these states under tropical storm warnings. The broad path may impact other states as well, as the storm is expected to stall over the Tennessee valley, bringing the threat of tornados, flooding, and destructive winds all along the eastern seaboard.
Interos’ Catastrophic Risk model captures the latest path and forecast track while identifying the companies and industries most exposed to Helene, allowing for insight into expected supply chain disruptions in affected areas.
According to data from Interos, over 1.2 million businesses are expected to experience wind speeds of at least 60 mph from Helene.
Ports in the Gulf Coast of Florida have already shut down and closed shipping channels, further exacerbating potential impacts. Major disruptions, including widespread power outages and airport closures, are expected as Helene is currently forecast to remain a tropical storm when its eye is over metro Atlanta. Hundreds of flights have already been cancelled as of Thursday afternoon, notably from Atlanta, Tampa, and Fort Meyers airports.
Helene is expected to impact several key industries. There are anticipated impacts to agriculture and crops, especially given that Hurricane Idalia led to an estimated 78.8 to 370.9 million dollars of agricultural production losses in Florida alone last year.
In total, Interos identified over 1100 unique industries at risk from Helene. Of these industries, the freight transportation and trucking industries are among the most likely to experience impacts, comprising over 3% of suppliers in the path of Helene. The wide array of potential industry impacts is also reflected in the large number of products exported by impacted suppliers. Over 380 products were identified, ranging from plastics, vehicle parts, and machinery to cosmetics and apparel.
As extreme weather events like hurricane Helene become increasingly commonplace, embracing global, real-time hazard monitoring solutions like Interos’ catastrophic risk technology are crucial for proactively deterring and mitigating supply chain disruptions.
In 2023, Cooper University Health Care used Interos to show that four of their vendors for critical medical supplies were in the path of a hurricane coming through the Gulf and across the Panhandle of Florida. Dr. Thomas Runkle, Vice President, Supply Chain contacted each supplier to assess if they were shutting down.He was then able to place an order for a couple days’ worth of supplies before one of their vendors shut down that afternoon.
Dr Thomas Runkle summed it up: “Reacting just doesn’t work anymore.” You have to be proactive and get ahead of an event.
Interos risk alerts provided both the speed and the alerts needed to get in front of costly disruptions.
Take control of supply chain disruptions before they escalate.
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