Amazon’s Disaster Relief Team, led by senior product manager Vidya Sampath, has supported dozens of communities during and after catastrophic disasters. As one of the world’s largest companies, Amazon is also a global employer with staff and teams in various countries, many who have personally felt the impact of these disasters. “At a broad level Amazon’s philosophy for any sort of philanthropy is that it’s part of our responsibility. Amazon’s culture is rooted in the leadership principles, specifically the principle of Success & Scale Bring Broad Responsibility, and we are a global company that employs more than one million people around the world, meaning we are part of these communities,” says Vidya.

Last year, Typhoon Halong touched down in Alaska and displaced over 1,000 residents. The historical floods and high winds destroyed more than 100 homes, leaving dozens of Alaskans stranded and waiting for rescue. Amazon’s Disaster Relief Team worked with organizations on the ground to develop a timely and effective strategy. “Responding in Alaska has always been a little tricky because how do you get relief items quickly to such a remote place. We looked at leveraging Amazon’s logistic capabilities and how we could work with community partners, like the local Red Cross and several local food banks,” says Vidya. “We started gathering information following the coastal floods and were informed people would be airlifted from their homes, away from the disaster. That told us these people will be leaving without their belongings and, in some cases, wouldn’t be returning until their homes were rebuilt much later. We worked with the Red Cross to determine what people needed when displaced, which were sheltering supplies that we had at our disaster relief hubs, then the question became how do we deliver them? We looked within the company, and guess what? Amazon has airplanes, planes that were already flying daily to Alaska, so we figured out how to safely pack the planes, meet customer delivery needs and carry relief items. The first conversation happened on a Wednesday; the plane carrying relief items was in Alaska by Saturday.”

When navigating the uncertainty that comes with disasters, efficient communication is key. Amazon’s Disaster Relief Team uses established relief rescue networks to manage large amounts of requests when supporting disaster-struck communities. “One reason we have this central program is because multiple teams would get the same requests, so there was a redundancy. These teams would try and figure out a solution, sometimes come to the same solution and now the person who made the request has five times of what they asked for. That creates a second problem for the person making the request,” says Vidya.

With each response, Amazon’s Disaster Relief Team is becoming more efficient, learning to better support communities during some of their most difficult times. Reflecting on the lessons learned, Vidya believes corporate foundations can be most useful during disasters by understanding what the company’s strengths are and when to apply them.