Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy • Volume 1 , Number 2 • Fall / Winter 2020
Supply Chain Resilience : Push and Pull in Catastrophes
Philip J . Palin
Editor ’ s Note : This is the second in an invited two-part series on supply chain resilience in catastrophes . The first installment , “ Food and other Supply Flows in Case of Catastrophe , appeared in the Journal ’ s Spring / Summer Edition . It presented a data driven , scalable analytical process to assess grocery and other supply flows in Washington State ’ s Puget Sound . The methodology is adaptable to other metropolitan areas . 1 The current article examines how U . S . supply chains have generally responded to COVID-19 and the pandemic ’ s impact thus far on grocery supply chains . Using these and other insights , the food supply chain repercussions of a destructive earthquake in the 4.2 million population Puget Sound Region are addressed . The first U . S . case of COVID-19 occurred in Washington State , and the region is designated as an earthquake hot zone . 2
Keywords : Supply Chain Resilience , food supply , grocery distribution , supply volume , supply velocity , covid-19 , earthquake , catastrophe
Large populations require large volumes of water , food , and other supplies . Delivering large volumes — especially over considerable distances to dense populations at an affordable price — depends on achieving high velocity flows .
The first article in this two-part series concluded with :
Infrastructure will fail . Cyclones , major seismic events , and cyber strikes will happen . Pandemics , wildfires , and floods can overwhelm . Many nodes and links will be destroyed . Flows will be seriously disrupted . Hundreds of thousands will be at risk . But what we have also seen — as in Japan on 3 / 11 and Puerto Rico in 2017 — is that human networks can be very creative when other sorts of networks break , especially when humans have prepared themselves for broken possibilities .
1 Palin , Philip . 2020 . “ Food and Other Supply Flows in Case of Catastrophe .” Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy 1 ( 1 ): 51-67 .
2 The exposition of this article departs from standard Journal format in order to facilitate its use in disaster planning by public administrators , emergency managers , and other professionals .
17 doi : 10.18278 / jcip . 1.2.3