On October 9, Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing damaging winds, flooding, power outages and significant disruptions across the Panhandle. For residents, the immediate concerns were familiar: when would the power come back on, were the roads passable, and how soon would essential supplies arrive?

For the people responsible for moving those supplies, the challenges were considerably more complicated. Motor carriers needed accurate information about highway accessibility, fuel terminal operations, emergency permits, and regulatory exemptions. And with conditions changing by the minute, reliable communication was essential.

Fortunately, Florida has quite a bit of experience answering those questions.

By October 13, the state reported that electricity had been restored to 95% of affected customers, and 11 points of distribution were operating across four counties to provide water, food, ice and other essential supplies. The recovery was still underway, but the coordinated response demonstrated something I've witnessed firsthand over years of working with Florida's trucking industry: when disaster strikes, the relationships and systems already in place can make an enormous difference in how quickly a state gets moving again.

And in Florida, those relationships extend well beyond government agencies.

The People Behind the Response

During Hurricane Ian in 2022, I was working with a trucking company attempting to deliver emergency supplies into Southwest Florida. Flooding had made portions of Interstate 75 impassable, and road conditions were changing constantly.

I was on the phone minute-to-minute with the Florida Highway Patrol as troopers stood at the water's edge, relaying whether the interstate was open or closed. I passed those updates directly to the carrier so its drivers could make informed decisions without putting themselves or their freight in danger.

There wasn't time to wait for a formal briefing or for information to work its way through several organizations. We needed answers, and we needed them immediately.

That experience illustrates something I have long appreciated about Florida's emergency-response infrastructure. The people who need to communicate during a disaster generally already know one another. State agencies, law enforcement, trucking companies, fuel suppliers, utilities and industry associations understand their respective roles and have established ways to share information.

Florida's Emergency Operations Center provides a central structure for this coordination, with public and private stakeholders working through designated Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). Transportation and fuel operations are particularly important because virtually every other recovery activity depends on them.

Think about it. Power restoration crews need fuel and equipment. Hospitals and emergency shelters need supplies. Residents need food, water and medicine. Even the generators keeping critical facilities operational require fuel deliveries.

And all of it depends, at some point, on getting people and products from one place to another.

Those relationships don't begin when a hurricane enters the Gulf. They are maintained throughout the year, which means that when an emergency does occur, the people involved can concentrate on solving problems rather than figuring out who needs to be included in the conversation.

What 190 People Can Accomplish in Seven Minutes

In December 2024, I had the opportunity to participate in a Fuel Supply Chain Workshop hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab.

The workshop brought together representatives from government, industry, academia and nonprofit organizations to examine disruptions experienced during Hurricanes Helene and Milton, identify operational challenges, and explore the development of a fuel-response playbook that other jurisdictions could use.

I joined three other Florida participants: Dan Hurtado of the Florida Department of Transportation, Kathy Fulton of the American Logistics Aid Network and Ned Bowman of the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association.

Over two days, we examined what MIT describes as wicked problems: complicated situations involving multiple organizations, overlapping responsibilities, and circumstances that are difficult to anticipate. If you've ever worked through a major hurricane response, that description probably sounds familiar.

One of the practices discussed was Florida's daily fuel coordination call, which brings together representatives from state agencies, fuel companies, terminal operators, utilities, meteorologists, industry associations, and other organizations involved in emergency operations.

During Hurricanes Helene and Milton, approximately 190 individuals participated in these calls.

The average call lasted just five to seven minutes.

Yes, you read that correctly. Roughly 190 people, and everyone was generally finished in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.

But the purpose wasn't to provide lengthy updates or discuss every possible issue. The calls followed a focused agenda covering storm conditions, road accessibility, fuel inventories, terminal operations, power availability, regulatory waivers, and immediate resource needs.

Participants could report problems as they emerged, ask questions, and identify which organizations needed to coordinate a solution. Equally important, information flowed in both directions. Government agencies received operational updates from the companies actually moving fuel, while industry representatives had direct access to the officials responsible for emergency decisions.

That communication helps prevent misinformation, duplicative efforts, and delays when time is already in short supply.

Of course, a call with 190 participants only works if the people involved trust one another enough to share accurate information and keep the discussion focused. The relationships established before an emergency are what make that possible.

Florida has invested years in developing that coordination structure, and the MIT workshop recognized the value of incorporating similar practices into a broader fuel-response playbook.

The Trouble With State Lines

As effective as Florida's emergency-response network can be, there's one challenge that no state can solve entirely on its own: freight doesn't stop at the state line.

During a disaster, emergency supplies may originate hundreds of miles away. Fuel might come from terminals in neighboring states. Trucks transporting relief equipment could cross several jurisdictions before reaching the communities that need them.

Each state has its own regulatory requirements, and those requirements don't automatically disappear when an emergency is declared.

States can issue temporary waivers addressing commercial vehicle weight restrictions, hours-of-service requirements, registration rules, and other operating conditions. These exemptions can be tremendously helpful in getting relief supplies where they need to go.

But what happens when one state issues a waiver and the neighboring state doesn't? Or when the conditions of those waivers differ?

Even when states are working toward the same objective, differences in their requirements can complicate the movement of emergency freight.

The MIT workshop identified regional coordination of regulatory waivers as an important opportunity for improvement. Participants discussed how inconsistent rules, delayed approvals, and restrictions on access to fuel terminals can create bottlenecks that extend well beyond the area directly affected by a storm.

Consider a truck carrying emergency fuel across multiple states. A weight exemption issued at its destination may not automatically cover the entire route. A driver operating under emergency hours-of-service provisions still needs to understand the conditions attached to those exemptions. And, as MIT's workshop summary notes, access to a fuel terminal can depend on terminal-specific credentials.

None of these problems is particularly glamorous, but each can slow a delivery that people are depending on.

Standardized credentialing procedures, better communication across state lines, and earlier coordination of emergency waivers help reduce those complications. The workshop also emphasized the importance of addressing potential liability concerns and ensuring that officials understand which emergency authorities are available before they're needed.

After all, the middle of a hurricane is a terrible time to discover that two neighboring states have completely different interpretations of the same emergency transportation requirement.

Planning for the Next One

As Hurricane Isaias approached Florida earlier this month, the state again activated established emergency procedures to support the movement of critical supplies and equipment.

Before landfall, the Florida Department of Transportation issued Emergency Order 26-07, addressing size and weight restrictions for qualifying vehicles transporting emergency equipment, services, supplies, and personnel.

These orders are important tools, particularly for carriers traveling into affected areas from other states. But issuing an emergency order is only part of the process. Drivers and dispatchers need to know that it exists, understand its requirements, and have access to accurate information about road conditions and restrictions.

That is where the communication infrastructure becomes just as important as the regulatory authority itself.

One of the most valuable discussions at MIT centered on creating a fuel-response playbook that could help states prepare for disasters they may not have experienced before. Florida has extensive experience with hurricanes, but other jurisdictions face their own challenges, including flooding, earthquakes, and other disruptions capable of bringing transportation networks to a halt.

The specific circumstances may differ, but many of the operational questions are the same.

Who is responsible for communicating road closures and restrictions? How are fuel inventory and terminal conditions reported? Which agencies have authority to issue emergency waivers? How do private companies communicate urgent needs to government officials? And perhaps most importantly, have the people responsible for these decisions ever worked through those questions together?

There's no substitute for answering them before an emergency occurs.

Tabletop exercises, regional planning meetings, and regular communication among transportation agencies, industry associations, and emergency managers can help identify gaps that might otherwise go unnoticed until a disaster is underway.

Those conversations should also include the people doing the work: motor carriers, fuel distributors, terminal operators, utility companies, and others whose day-to-day operations will be essential to recovery.

Florida's experience offers a useful starting point, but I wouldn't suggest that every state simply replicate its system. Transportation networks, infrastructure vulnerabilities, regulatory structures, and emergency-management responsibilities vary considerably across the country.

The objective should be to understand which practices have proven effective, identify where they can be adapted, and establish the relationships necessary to make them work.

The Work That Happens Before the Storm

Hurricane Isaias is another reminder that emergency transportation response requires considerably more than opening roads and issuing permits after a storm passes.

Florida's ability to coordinate its response is the product of relationships maintained over many years, clearly established responsibilities, and a willingness among government and industry partners to share information when it matters most.

Having worked alongside many of the people responsible for that coordination, I can tell you that their preparation rarely receives the attention it deserves. Neither does the work of the truck drivers, fuel suppliers, emergency managers, law enforcement officers, and countless others who keep essential goods moving under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

Yet those efforts are fundamental to how quickly communities can recover.

The recommendations that emerged from MIT's workshop, particularly around regional coordination, regulatory consistency, and the development of a national fuel-response playbook, provide an opportunity to strengthen those systems well beyond Florida.

There will always be circumstances that no amount of planning can anticipate. Roads will flood. Infrastructure will fail. Supply chains will face disruptions that require people to make decisions with incomplete information.

But we can make sure the people responsible for responding aren't meeting one another for the first time when that happens.

And if there's one thing Florida's experience has taught me, it's that those relationships are worth building long before the next storm appears on the radar.