A series of winter storms and widespread power cuts that have gripped Texas and other states unaccustomed to such extremely cold temperatures are creating major challenges in the country’s food supply networks.
Supermarket chains such as Walmart and Publix have been forced to close some stores due to lack of power or lack of employees. And in locations that remain open, customers complain of long lines outside and empty shelves once full of water, bread and milk when they enter. For example, Texas supermarket chain HEB has closed a number of stores and is restricting customer purchases of items such as breast and propane tanks.
The power outage has caught many people unprepared, including Jon Reilly, who says he always has a month’s supply of canned food on hand for hurricanes. But on Wednesday, his daughter and wife waited in line for 20 minutes outside a supermarket in Corpus Christi, Texas, to come out with bread and water. They found no milk, cheese or meat. It’s also low on propane, which it uses to power the outdoor grill for cooking.
“We thought it was going to be cold,” said Reilly. “We didn’t expect to have no electricity for a week.”
Rodney Giles, 35, from the Woodlands, Texas, went to get steak to grill for his family on Tuesday. But he ended up waiting in line outside his local HEB for two hours. When he came in, the only things available were tofu, oat milk and other things he didn’t want. But after weathering several hurricanes and the pandemic, he hopes the store’s stock will improve soon.
“Even during the pandemic here in March, the shelves were empty the first day, but they were fully stocked the next day,” said Giles.
Supermarkets in Texas and other parts of the South are used to hurricanes that can force them to stand still for a few days. But this week’s massive winter storms reach further, causing widespread damage to roads and the entire transportation infrastructure. The coronavirus pandemic is only exacerbating the problem as stores have to limit the number of customers.
Michael Zimmerman, a partner in the strategic operations practice of global management consultancy Kearney, predicts it will be another two weeks for supermarket shelves in the affected areas to return to normal. He noted that supermarket chains operate very efficiently, keep what they need in stock and rely on continuous supply flows. But that can backfire in situations like snow storms and power outages if having the extra supply helps.
“Supermarkets just don’t have space, even if they could store garlic for three years,” he said.
Meanwhile, food suppliers have to scale back operations or close farms and factories because of the outages. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller issued a red warning earlier this week, noting that he is receiving calls from farmers and ranchers across the state that the power and natural gas outages are “having a devastating effect on their operations.”
In just one example, dairies dump $ 8 million worth of milk down the sewers every day because the factories that process that milk have no power, Miller quoted in his statement.
“We’re looking at a food supply chain problem like we’ve never seen before, not even with COVID-19,” he said.
Tyson Foods says it has temporarily scaled down or halted production at some facilities to cut energy costs.
Sanderson Farms Inc., one of the largest U.S. chicken companies, estimated on Tuesday that as many as 200 of the approximately 1,900 chicken coops in Texas have no power. But the chairman and CEO of the Mississippi-based company, Joe F. Sanderson Jr., remained optimistic.
“This experience is comparable to a hurricane,” he said. Sanderson, Jr., in a statement. “We have experience managing catastrophic weather events, and this will be no different.”
Supply problems have spread to food banks, hampering their ability to feed the most deprived. Celia Cole, the CEO of hunger-fighting organization Feeding Texas, said most of the 21 food banks the organization runs in the state have been closed due to weather, power issues, or people unable to get to work. But several have supplied food to heating stations in more urban areas of the state.
“I don’t think there is a single community that has not been touched,” she said. “The biggest challenge we face in helping people is disrupting the supply chain.”
Amid the chaos, however, there are a few bright spots, like for Bruna Villalon, 24, who lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and three dogs. She went to Walmart on Monday to stock up on essentials when the power went out.
“The store manager had to ask each individual customer how much they thought groceries were, and if we didn’t have cash we could just leave with the groceries,” said Villalon, who paid $ 20 in cash for about $ 35 worth of groceries.
D’Innocenzio and Anderson are based in New York. AP Business Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan contributed to this report.