Hurricane Fiona was a powerful Category 4 hurricane that made landfall as a Category 1 in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It took place between September 14 and 24 last year and, in Puerto Rico alone, caused the country’s largest flooding after 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
A hurricane that greatly affected not only the population of our country, but also the development of most companies. But, at the same time, the passage of this hurricane has allowed us to learn certain aspects to keep in mind in the future with respect to fuel supplies.
Puerto Rico’s infrastructure is very unstable
First of all, the passage of Hurricane Fiona has once again demonstrated that the infrastructure in Puerto Rico is still very unstable. Hurricane Maria, which occurred in September 2017, caused many companies to rethink their situation to the point of upgrading their infrastructure.
However, with the arrival of a new hurricane, such as this year’s Fiona, we have once again become aware of the island’s instability and vulnerability to these powerful atmospheric effects. In this sense, there is no room for any kind of confidence in this regard.
Fatal combination hurricane + gas shortage
One of the effects of Hurricane Fiona was the lack of gas supplies for 24 hours. A fact that caused delays in deliveries, to the point that many of our customers had a lack of fuel. This was especially affected by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the worldwide gas shortage.
In view of this situation, from American Petroleum we always recommend the need to guarantee at least 3-5 days of fuel in emergency situations or in hurricane season. This way, there will be no supply problems in the event of any setback or unforeseen event that may arise.
High demand = communications problems
On the other hand, during hurricane season, the demand for fuel increases, which can cause problems in communications. This year, due to the effects of Hurricane Fiona, American Petroleum had to deactivate the telephone switchboard and establish e-mail as the only means of communication with our customers.
This was due to the fact that our customer service department could not handle 100% of the enormous number of calls we received at that time. For cases like this, we reiterate the need to be prepared and have sufficient fuel guarantee.
Companies should always keep their accounts and invoices up to date
Finally, Hurricane Fiona has once again proven us right on the need for our customers to keep their accounts active and their bills up to date. During those days, many customers lost their opportunity to be supplied by not having their accounts up to date. It is very important, therefore, that they keep their credit lines up to date so that we can quickly meet their supply needs.
Finally, we remind our customers to cancel their orders if they do not need it by that time so that we can better reach those companies that do require fuel urgently.