Are You Prepared for Disaster?

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded NACS a contract to develop an emergency preparedness program for convenience stores and we need retailer input for the program.

The community depends on convenience stores in a disaster. Convenience stores sell 80% of the fuel in the United States, sell nearly 50% of all single-serve bottled water in the country and operate roughly one-third of all ATMs. Sometimes convenience stores have generators that may be the only source of electricity to recharge cell phones or pump gas for emergency responders.

Convenience stores are the delivery point of the supply chain for fuel, food, water, and financial services. As an outcome of this 9-month project, NACS will help stores be better prepared to provide increased resilience for community response and recovery as well as improve their own abilities to stay open longer and reopen faster during an emergency.

NACS is currently seeking additional retail action plans, specifically corporate emergency or business continuity plans, individual store emergency plans and training materials used by store managers and employees to prepare and respond to emergencies. All plans received will be kept in complete confidence and will not be shared.

If you would be willing to participate by sending your company materials, NACS will share with participating retailers the industry assessment reports, as well as provide a preview of materials that will be available in the summer of 2019. Please contact Carolyn Schnare, NACS director of strategic initiatives at [email protected] to participate.

Risk management