Lowe’s stores are stocked with disaster prep, clean up and recovery supplies, but the company’s support for communities facing natural disasters also includes many strategic partnerships and other local support.
Below are five ways Lowe’s works to help our communities, plus the partnerships that help us… help you.
1. We’re open when others can’t be.
Every Lowe’s store is equipped with backup generators to help stores reopen as quickly as possible after a disaster, once it’s safe to do so. That also means customers needing critical supplies for their homes can have access to them sooner.
2. We deliver emergency supplies as quickly as possible.
Lowe’s Emergency Command Center was created in 1989 in the wake of Hurricane Hugo. During significant weather events, associates at Lowe’s headquarters in Mooresville, N.C., activate the Command Center and work around the clock to get critical supplies to stores.
3. Our impacted associates come first.
Lowe’s deploys employee response teams from other areas to support stores impacted by disaster, which means impacted associates can focus on their families and personal needs without worrying about reporting for work. Lowe’s pays storm relief team members for their expenses and labor, but each is a volunteer for the assignment.
4. Lowe’s strategic partnerships help us help our communities before, during and after a disaster.
Ahead of storms, we work with new nonprofit partners Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) and National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster VOAD to make readiness a priority. After a disaster, Lowe’s understands food, water and shelter are immediate community needs, so partners from the American Red Cross to Operation BBQ Relief are poised to jump in with us. We also understand it can take weeks to clean up and often even longer to rebuild, so we’ve partnered with Reach Out WorldWide (ROWW), plus other organizations like Team Rubicon, The Salvation Army and St. Bernard Project.
5. Whenever disaster strikes, Lowe’s associate volunteers swoop into communities to help.
From distributing supplies and helping residents clean up after a disaster, Lowe’s associates often show up with chainsaws to cut up fallen trees, storage totes to help salvage personal belongings and the expertise to remove drywall. Earlier this year, associates at our distribution centers packed 20,000 relief buckets; the buckets are staged at our distribution centers and shipped to local stores after tornadoes, hurricanes and floods to help with recovery.
Since 2017, Lowe’s has distributed more than 70,000 buckets with cleanup supplies and in 2021, we provided $100 million to support our local communities.
