Recovering From Hurricane Sandy

by Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson extends our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. We have been deeply committed to the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York region for more than 125 years.  And today, we remain focused and united in helping people and communities stabilize and return to normal in the aftermath of this unprecedented natural disaster.

Following are some examples of the ways we’re helping care for our customers, our communities and our employees:

Supporting our customers

Against difficult odds, employees throughout North America have been working to ensure that our customers have the products they need. Whether they are in distribution centers or the field, Johnson & Johnson employees have worked tirelessly to supply hospitals, pharmacies and retailers with what their patients and customers need.

We continue to assess potential customer needs for all of our products — medicines, medical devices, consumer healthcare, first aid, etc.  – and address contingencies to ensure that customers and patient needs are being met in the affected areas and across our global supply chain.

At this point, we have not experienced any supply interruptions and our medical products continue to flow to the customers, patients and health care facilities that need them.

Donations to Help Those in Need

In addition to ensuring that our healthcare products are available to customers, we also have committed more than $5 million in product and financial support to relief efforts and we are putting additional resources and processes in place to quickly funnel aid to those most affected by the storm.

The company’s key partners in these efforts are AmeriCares, Catholic Medical Mission Board, Direct Relief International, Heart to Heart International, Inc., MAP International, and Save the Children.  A few of the Johnson & Johnson supported relief programs include:

AmeriCares has a fully–equipped mobile clinic that is traveling to the hardest hit areas in New Jersey and New York.  The aid organization is also distributing Johnson & Johnson hygiene kits stocked with soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and other personal care items to emergency shelters and aid distribution centers.

• Johnson’s® Baby “Care kits” filled with hygiene essentials are being distributed by Save the Children to the New Jersey and New York areas.
• Employees are engaged in the relief efforts through “Click to Care,” the Johnson & Johnson employee giving program in which donations to our disaster relief partners and many other community organizations are matched on a two-to-one basis.
• The company is also working with the American Red Cross (ARC) on a program that would allow our employees to donate to the relief efforts and ARC programs that would be earmarked for community and capacity building around disaster preparedness in New Jersey. The company is matching employee donations on a one-to-one basis. Johnson & Johnson employees can click here to access the donation site.

Engaging our Employees

The Johnson & Johnson Credo underpins our spirit to care for the communities where we live and work and the efforts of our New Jersey and Pennsylvania facilities staff have helped in myriad ways, including:

• Providing fuel to the police and emergency services in the areas surrounding the Corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey,
• Supplying generators and diesel fuel to local municipalities;
• Preparing food for first responders;
• Sending company store goods to the local shelter, and
• Dispatching a fire truck from one of our sites to a New York City hospital to pump out water.

Supporting our Workforce

We continue to communicate regularly with our employees, and have set up a Hurricane Hotline for those in need of shelter, food or clothing, or in urgent need of information or resources.  We also are providing them with resources and information about how the company, government and other agencies can assist them in their time of need.

As always, the safety and security of our employees and their families is our highest priority. Although all of our NJ and Pa. facilities re-opened on Monday, Nov. 5., we have asked employees to consider all factors, such as access to gasoline and road closures, as they make their decisions to travel, work from home or to deal with their personal situations.

As the damage is assessed across the region and the region braces possibly for more severe weather this week, we continue to evaluate other ways we can help provide for the healthcare needs of affected communities.