Waiting in line at Publix more than a week ago as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida, Fort Myers' Christina Wyatt watched a heated argument break out over places in line.
It was among the frantic scenes that repeated in Southwest Florida as the massive storm marched closer after Labor Day weekend and people couldn't find water, plywood, gas, generators and other necessities.
“It’s unfortunate that tempers flare,” Wyatt said Thursday as she cleared branches and debris in the morning heat outside her home, which was without power several days. “But you’ve got to be patient, and patient with each other. Nobody likes this.”
For more coverage of Hurricane Irma and the storm's aftermath visit: news-press.com/hurricane.
Faced with what they called unprecedented demand, local retailers recounted efforts to keep shelves restocked while helping oft-panicked customers keep calm and informed – with lessons to be learned on both fronts for the next threat of Irma proportions.
“No one has experienced anything to this volume, to this magnitude before,"said Publix spokesman Brian West, "to have a storm that really stretches from the Keys to the Panhandle in size, and it comes right up through the center of the state."
Publix saw itsstatewide footprint of nearly 800 stores effectivelyreceivedouble its normal demand in the span of only a couple days, West said.
More:Hurricane Irma update: Farmers assessing damage; U.S. Sugar reporting at least $20 million loss
“Each time a truck would arrive, as soon as (products were) on the shelf, it was gone,” he said. “It’s hard to keep up with that kind of volume. We’re prepared. We just can’t get the product there quick enough. The demand has just been incredible.”
Michael Wynn, president of Sunshine Ace Hardware, said the family owned business always increases hurricane supplies entering storm season and began adding more before Labor Day weekend as the threat from Irma grew.
Some customersbought supplies over the three-dayweekend. But Tuesday was “off the charts."
“This storm in particular really frightened a lot of people,” he said. “We were literally getting trucks in almost everyday. We would bring in a significant amount of supply, and it would be gone within hours.”
More:Hurricane Irma update: Restaurants open in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Sanibel, Lehigh, beaches
Vendors said hurricane preparation had been fairly lax for most of this storm season, perhaps because the southern half of the state hadnot suffered a significant hurricane since a wave of storms that included Charley in 2004 and Wilma in 2005.
But in the wake of mass flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey late last month, the unprecedented size and threat of Irma combined to create demand on both Florida coasts that overwhelmed stores, distribution centers and suppliers.
“All of a sudden, all those (locations) were a target for impact for that storm,” Wynn said. “It was pulling on supply resources throughout the Southeast.”
As stores struggled to meet demand, photos spread on social media of empty water shelves at grocery stores and empty plywood shelves at lumber and hardware stores. Desperate homeowners who couldn't find plywood bought fencing, particle board, single boards and even plastic lattice to cover windows.
In the latter half of the week, the logistics worsened as retailers and suppliers began losing employees to evacuations and preparations at their own homes.
Truck drivers stoppedbeing sent into the southern half of the state given the mass exodus clogging what would be their own exits along Florida’s few north-bound routes.
“The truck drivers couldn’t go down there and expect to get out,” said Home Depot spokesman Matt Harrigan, pointing as other retailers did to the need to get products to customers and make sure their own employees weren’t being endangered.
More:Hurricane Irma expected to batter, boost Florida’s economy
“We have distribution centers with pre-staged loads, supply chain teams working around the clock. We were getting product to the stores as quickly as possible.”
Home Depot has made about 7,000 shipments – either full or partial truckloads – of storm supplies to Houston and Florida before and after Harvey and Irma, Harrigan said.
“Houston also needed help,” said Leonard Kinzel, manager of the Lowe’s Home Improvement in Fort Myers, where sand and wood shipping palettes were put out free for those in need after the store closed.
“We have hurricane trucks ready to go. When you have a Cat(egory) 4 hit, you’re going to send all your supplies. When you have another Cat 4, everything has to swing around.”
Even with shipments preciselytracked in modern business, many retailers lost the ability to tell customers when new products would arrive.
“You had dealers all over the state trying to secure from the same warehouses,” Wynn said. “There were things you thought were reserved but they had to be back-filled from other warehouses that were out of the state. There were inevitable delays. We tried to communicate as best as we could to customers.”
More:Irma update: Lehigh residents wade home after the storm
Plywood posed challenges because it isn’t warehoused in quantities large enough to meet the demand seen in Irma, Kinzel said.
“You can’t just keep it out in the rain,” he said. “(New supplies) still have to come down from Georgia and the Carolinas.”
Britt Beemer, a consumer trends and retailing expert, said as much as Florida’s narrow supply lines contributed to the problem, the biggest challenge was limited availability from suppliersin an era of stripped-down storage and “just-in-time” shipments.
“The trouble with just in time means you just ran out,” he said of the common business principle. “Just in time means you can’t predict incredible demand in an emergency. I don’t think anybody could have imagined a disaster could impact an entire state the size of Florida."
Beemer said supply chain management has become the No. 1 degree companies are hiring for and is being offered by more colleges. But Irma's impact was too great.
More:Irma update: Lee County declares Hurricane Irma 'major disaster'
"As companies are getting leaner and leaner, the companies with the best supply chain management always win," he said. "Obviously companies have warehouses and distribution centers. Well those may not have enough of something to be able to supply 40 extra stores twice or three times what they used to sell."
After Irma passed, the issues that plagued preparations were repeated for several days with the long lines and insufficient supply of gasoline across Southwest Florida.
But efforts to get products into the area before the storm helped many quicklyreopenfor customers needing food, water, ice, generators and other supplies.
OnePublix location in North Fort Myers reopened partially on Monday under generator power. Employees escortedsome elderlyresidents of the many nearby trailer parks through the aisles to help get needed supplies.
“As soon as it was safe to be back in, we were trying to get open, even with a skeleton crew," West said.
Lowe's onGladiolus Drive in Fort Myers, which reopened at 6 a.m. Tuesday, used its500-gallon tank on site to supply gas to its available employees for the store to be able to open and quickly get chainsaws, generators and more to customers.
More:Hurricane Irma update: FEMA slow to respond, has few specifics for disaster recovery in Lee County
“Right now the biggest need is battery-powered fans and portable air conditioners to run on generators," Kinzel said.
With many of its employees still evacuated shortly after Irma passed, Sunshine Ace turned to family members and even neighbors to carpool, fix older generators and more.
“Our people were incredibly flexible," Wynn said. "You get very creative during these times. We have found every which way. We’ve got a lot of great people that have just stood up and said, ‘Where can I help?’”
Beemer, who has appeared across an array of national media for his America’s Research Group, said Irma’s circumstances are so unique that they may provide lessons for future business course case studies.
One Sunshine Ace location handed out numbers in line – grocery store deli style – to help customers feel more at ease that they weren’t being skipped in line.
Even with stores under duress, Beemer said he might advise them to still take old-fashioned call lists to reach customers who were shut out of supplies.
More:Hurricane Irma update: 54 Lee schools still without power; schools remain closed through Friday
And even with some employees getting “beat up so much by customers,” Beemer said it didn’t help in instances when employees fired back verbally.
But given that damage from Irma could have been much worse, many understood the lesson thatthere's only so much even modern supply lines cando. And that preparations in the future should start earlier than the week of a storm.
"The more prepared people are in advance, the better off all the different businesses can be to better serve them and make sure there's an equitable distribution of those supplies and products," Wynn said."So there's not that last-minute surge of demand, which frankly doesn't help the individuals and doesn't serve the community well."
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