More than a month after a tornado severely damaged Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas’ parts warehouse in Georgia, the company reports it has been able to gain limited access to the damaged section of the building.
Hitachi is now removing parts from the warehouse, while facing “strictly controlled entry regulations.”
“This will enable us to deploy our first round of system modifications, allowing us to pick up stock,” says a company statement emailed February 18. “The officials and structural team are still assessing the damaged area, and we are following all of their directives until it is entirely safe.”
The tornado struck Jackson, Georgia, on January 12 at 4:30 p.m. The 100 workers in the 336,017-square-foot warehouse were evacuated before the tornado struck, and no major injuries were reported by the company.
The warehouse had been opened for a little less than a year and stored parts for distribution throughout North and South America.
The tornado caused part of the roof to collapse and damaged the building’s infrastructure, Hitachi says. The company has taken several steps toward timely product delivery. It has air-shipped parts from its warehouse in Japan and used a secondary warehouse in Georgia. It also set up a temporary warehouse.
Meanwhile, the company is working on transferring inventory from the damaged warehouse to its other local warehouses.
“The HCMA contingency plan that we have developed has enabled us to resume critical tasks, as well as allocate resources for all of the Jackson Parts Warehouse needs,” the company’s email says.
