DLA Distribution Susquehanna supports Hurricanes Harvey and Irma recovery

NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. – As the Defense Logistics Agency continues working with U.S. Northern Command and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a supporting role in the overall whole of government disaster response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, its distribution center in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, has been steadfastly shipping relief items to the affected areas while its deployed employees manage receipt and delivery of items.

Prior to Harvey’s landfall in Texas, DLA Distribution made the decision to activate its deployable distribution team, DLA Distribution Expeditionary, or DDXX. Additional team members subsequently deployed in response to Hurricane Irma. The team, created in 2010 as a result of lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, includes more than 100 personnel from multiple distribution centers who can deploy within 24 hours to process materiel in support of conflict contingency operations, as well as Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief efforts.

DLA Distribution employees were deployed to Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas; Seguin, Texas; and Maxwell Air Force base, Alabama, to support the FEMA Incident Support Bases with the DDXX capability.

In total, 40 DDXX team members are deployed to Intermediate Staging Base Randolph, near San Antonio, Texas. Thirty-one of these 40 personnel are DLA Distribution Susquehanna team members.

There are 37 DDXX team members are deployed to ISB Maxwell, and eight of these team members are from the midstate. In total, 39 DLA Distribution Susquehanna employees are away from their families serving in relief operations in Texas and in Alabama.

These teams are made up of Distribution Process Workers, MHE operators, Storage and Transportation Technicians, Planners, Mechanics and Supervisors. And they are using Materiel Handling Equipment such as forklifts and yard mules and staging large volumes of relief materials including meals and water until forward locations are able to receive the materials. The DDXX forward teams are averaging 250 trucks of relief supplies each day.

In addition to emergency parts requests, the distribution center has also shipped out three major shipments totaling 7,000 cots to support response efforts.

The DLA Distribution Susquehanna team also proactively halted delivery to nearly 600 DoD customers in Puerto Rico, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama as Hurricane Irma approached.

As DLA’s largest and serves as a major distribution hub for the eastern United States, the distribution center’s deliveries are critical readiness enablers for DoD forces, and as customers in the affected locations were able to recover and begin receiving, delivery was turned back on with now only approximately 70 customers currently unable to receive supplies.

The approximately 1,600 men and women of DLA Distribution Susquehanna are now focused on sending out large volumes of critical items to keep DoD units at full strength and ready for combat operations.

Photos and video products of DoD response efforts can be found on the DVIDS Hurricane Irma feature page.