Amazon.com Inc.

07/22/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/22/2026 01:28

How Amazon’s Disaster Relief hubs help communities when every minute counts

Update: This story was originally published on August 22, 2024. It was updated on July 22, 2026, to reflect the opening of the wildfire disaster relief hub in Canada.

Key takeaways

  • Amazon operates 12 Disaster Relief hubs across seven countries, now including Canada.
  • The hubs are strategically located near disaster-prone areas to deliver relief to communities within hours of a hurricane, wildfire, or other disaster.
  • Amazon stocks emergency supplies at relief hubs and delivers them to nonprofits when disasters strike.
Inside a massive fulfillment center near Atlanta, Georgia, rows of shelves are stacked from the floor to the ceiling with pallets tightly sealed in color-coded plastic. Each pallet contains emergency supplies that nonprofits like the American Red Cross and World Central Kitchen will need if a disaster strikes.
Within minutes, the pallets are ready to be carried off by forklifts and loaded into huge cargo planes or semi-trailer trucks.

How Amazon is helping after back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela

Amazon is supporting nonprofits on the ground and delivering relief supplies after devastating quakes hit northern Venezuela.

That's exactly what happened when Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica and flash floods swept acrosscentral Texas in 2025. Amazon's largest Disaster Relief hubs are stocked with enough supplies to fill three Amazon Air 767 cargo planes at a moment's notice-or 1.4 million items.
Amazon's global network of Disaster Relief hubs, first launched in the United States in 2021, enable us to respond to natural disasters in just two days or less-seven times faster than the previous average of 14 days it takes for emergency supplies to reach first responders. The Atlanta hub is one of 12 strategically located hubs around the world, including a new wildfire relief hub in Edmonton, Alberta-Amazon's first disaster relief hub in Canada.
The hubs harness the power of Amazon's delivery and logistics, enabling donated items from Amazon to reach front-line nonprofits on the ground within hours of a disaster.
Here's everything you need to know about Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs:

How do Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs work?

Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs repurpose existing Amazon infrastructure to support organizations that don't have Amazon's product, storage, and delivery capabilities. Our partnerships enable nonprofits and first responders to focus on their lifesaving missions, while Amazon takes care of getting the right supplies at the right time to the right locations.
Our Disaster Relief team, which works year-round to help communities impacted by disasters, listens to what partners need and reviews data from past relief efforts to ensure the highest-demand items are ready to go from the closest hub before a disaster strikes.

Amazon has delivered 30 million relief items since 2017-here's how we're ready to help when natural disasters strike

When hurricanes, wildfires, or other natural disasters strike, Amazon quickly meets community needs.

"While every disaster is different, we now have a better understanding of which items communities will need most when certain disasters strike," said Abe Diaz, Amazon's head of disaster relief. "We work with our relief partners to pre-pack items so they're ready before they even need them."

Where are Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs located?

Amazon operates Disaster Relief hubs within our existing fulfillment centers in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Amazon's relief hubs are located near disaster-prone regions, major cities, and transportation networks, enabling Amazon to deliver emergency supplies to impacted communities within hours of a relief partner's request.
Since Amazon launched our Disaster Relief program in 2017, we have donated and delivered more than 30 million relief items to support communities affected by over 200 natural disasters around the world.
"Thanks to our hubs, Amazon can respond to community needs seven times as fast as we did before, and my team continues to constantly evolve and innovate to help where and when it's needed most," said Diaz, who grew up in Puerto Rico and was inspired to join Amazon's disaster relief team after seeing its Hurricane Maria recovery efforts.

What's inside Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs?

Each hub houses products that first responders and communities need in the aftermath of natural disasters in their region, such as tarps, medical supplies, cleaning products, and water filtration systems.
Disaster relief kits are created to meet the specific needs of Amazon's community partners. Red Cross volunteers, for example, are often the first to arrive on the ground after a disaster, so one pallet in Amazon's relief hub near Atlanta contains essentials they need to set up a mobile office inside a shelter, including a printer and a power source.

How Amazon partners with the American Red Cross to make a difference

Learn more about our long-standing partnership, which helps communities recover faster from natural disasters.

In Canada, the new wildfire hub stocks specialized gear like N95 masks, air purifiers, heavy-duty rubber boots, and respirators, alongside supplies to create child-friendly spaces for displaced families.

How Amazon Disaster Relief hubs help restore homes

After a flood, many homes need to be completely gutted before anyone can safely live there again. Homeowners must act fast to prevent the spread of dangerous mold, and this often involves the labor-intensive process of removing water-damaged drywall, insulation, and electrical fixtures-referred to as "mucking and gutting."
Amazon has donated and delivered thousands of "muck and gut" kits from our hubs to our nonprofit partners. Our partners help homeowners who might not have flood insurance or enough time to outsource the job. Muck-and-gut kits typically contain buckets, rubber gloves, trash bags, shovels, brooms, mops, coveralls, goggles, and respirator masks.
When the Guadalupe River in central Texas rose more than 26 feet in 45 minutes over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2025, Amazon's hub near Atlanta sprang into action. Among the 155,000 items Amazon donated for relief were more than 23,000 supplies for these home restoration kits.
"This is what meaningful collaboration looks like-meeting urgent needs with speed, compassion, and purpose," said Good360, one of Amazon's longtime partners in relief.

How Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs provide essentials for people affected by disasters

After the central Texas floods, Angel Poorman, the co-founder of the Texas-based nonprofit United Rescue Alliance, served at the center of the responseon the front lines. She vividly remembers one woman who arrived in her truck, which was all she had left after the floods destroyed her home, to pick up a hygiene kit.
"Being able to brush your teeth and wash your hair, it brings dignity and honor," Poorman said. "It lets someone know they are seen, they are known, and they are loved."

5 ways Amazon is giving back to communities across the US

We work with thousands of partners to address a range of critical social needs in our hometown communities and across the U.S.

Amazon donated 16,000 hygiene kits from our hub near Atlanta after the central Texas floods. The kits have been part of dozens of Amazon disaster responses, including efforts to support Ukrainian refugees and flood survivors in central and eastern Europe. Hygiene kits typically contain combs, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, and loofahs.
Hundreds of Amazon employees come together every year at locations around the world to assemble the kits into ready-to-go biodegradable bags. Importantly, the soap inside the kits is vegan and alcohol-free to meet halal religious and ethical standards.

How Amazon Disaster Relief Hubs help children stay calm

For children, staying in a shelter after a disaster can be particularly stressful.
A partnership between Amazon and Save the Children creates child-friendly spaces inside shelters that make a difference for those affected.
Pallets that are stocked with squishy stress toys, coloring books, and stuffed animals are designed to help families stay calm at shelters.
This unique initiative showcases the power of partnerships to meet specific needs after disasters strike.

How has Amazon Disaster Relief helped communities around the world?

Over the last few years, Amazon Disaster Relief responded to flooding in Spain and across central and eastern Europe; wildfires in California, Chile, Colombia, Australia, and Hawaii; earthquakes in Venezuela, Japan, Syria, and Morocco; and hurricanes and cyclones in Jamaica, Florida, India, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Disaster Relief: Frequently Asked Questions

How does Amazon help when disasters strike?

How does Amazon decide when to respond to a disaster?

How do Amazon's Disaster Relief hubs work?

Can individuals impacted by disasters request assistance directly from Amazon?

How can I get help before or after experiencing a natural disaster?

What nonprofits does Amazon partner with for disaster relief?

How does Amazon support employees after a disaster?

Related Tags

Amazon.com Inc. published this content on July 22, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on July 22, 2026 at 07:29 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]