MillerCoors is also shipping 50,000 cans of drinking water produced at its Shenandoah, Virginia, brewery to its Texas brewery, which will be distributed to Red Cross facilities near the hurricane-stricken area.
Harvey was classified as a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in Rockport, Texas, last Friday, measuring 200 miles across with winds over 100mph and projected rainfall of up to 50 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
So far, one truckload of emergency canned water has already arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Anheuser-Busch’s wholesale partner, Mockler Beverage, and is being distributed to impacted communities, the brewer said. Two more truckloads are expected to arrive at the Red Cross in Arlington, Texas, this week.
“Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help in these situations,” Bill Bradley, VP of community affairs for Anheuser-Busch, said.
History of disaster relief preparedness
When the Red Cross issued an urgent request to support communities hit by Hurricane Harvey, the emergency drinking water was already canned and ready to be shipped from its Cartersville brewery located approximately 800 miles from the hurricane-stricken area of Texas, according to Anheuser-Busch.
“Throughout the year, we periodically pause beer production at our Cartersville, Georgia brewery to produce emergency canned drinking water so we are ready to help out communities across the country in times of crisis,” Bradley said.
Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch has provided over 76 million cans of drinking water to aid areas stricken by natural disasters including California wildfires and Hurricane Matthew.
Anheuser-Busch has three facilities in Houston, Texas: one large brewery, its craft partner Karbach, and the Longhorn glass bottle facility. The three facilities together have approximately 1,100 employees and all are safe, the company said.
“The safety of our colleagues is paramount and we are proud of the work our Houston team has done over the weekend to keep our team safe in these difficult and exceptional circumstances,” Bradley added.