Tropical Storm Debby is making its way along the Southeastern Coast of the USA towards Georgia and South Carolina, bringing with it severe flash flooding and up to 30 inches of rain in historic rainfall. Flooding from Virginia all the way to Maine is expected over the weekend.

US supply chain management is and will continue to be impacted as a result. The storm, which first hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday morning, has closed ports, damaged properties, and severely impacted local communities, while local and national transport have been disrupted with around 300 flights across the USA cancelled on Tuesday and about 1400 flights delayed.

The storm’s path is expected to impact around 17,000 industrial facilities, which could disrupt production of more than 70,000 parts and more than 17,000 products. Emergency supplies are being shipped to Florida, where an emergency disaster was declared while Georgia issued a state-wide state of emergency. Some ports such as Jacksonville, the port of Fernandina, and Georgia ports remain currently closed. Port Tampa Bay, however, which is Florida’s largest port handling 33 million tons of cargo annually, reopened yesterday evening having closed on Saturday in expectation of the storm.

We expect there will be some delays and disruptions as a result. We will provide further updates should you be affected. Our thoughts go out to all the communities impacted.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Woodland representative or email us here.