Navigating Extreme Weather Events and Disruptions: A Guide for Shippers

The U.S. experienced 24 weather and climate disasters, each causing losses exceeding $1 billion, in the first 10 months of 2024. In 2023, there were 28 such events—the highest annual disaster count in the 44 years the federal government has been tracking such occurrences.

Extreme weather events and non-weather-related disruptions, such as labor strikes, pandemics and geopolitical tensions, threaten transportation networks and the smooth operation of supply chains. Hurricane Helene, to cite just one example, in September destroyed a section of Interstate 40 at the Tennessee-North Carolina border and will take months to repair. The stretch of highway that was damaged supports about 7,610 commercial trucks daily, according to published reports.

Navigating these challenges effectively requires proactive and resilient strategies, advanced technology, and a strong crisis-response framework.

A shipper does not operate in isolation. It’s intertwined in a complex web of suppliers and customers. A failure of one of the nodes in the supply chain can have a domino effect — a loss at a single point in the chain, such as a tornado damaging a contract manufacturer’s plant — causes other nodes to be disrupted as well. Although supply chain risk is not a new risk phenomenon, companies still struggle to manage…