Hurricane Florence Update: Mansfield Initiates Code Red Procedures in 4 States

Hurricane Florence is now a category 4 hurricane with current sustained winds over 130 mph. Expected landfall is late Thursday into early Friday. Maryland has joined North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia by issuing a state of emergency and evacuations are continuing from many coastline cities. As a result of these evacuations, some roads are being reversed and gas stations are beginning to report outages.

Mansfield has entered into a Code Red plan for North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland – meaning the storm is expected to make landfall within 3 days. With a potential 12’ storm surge and predicted rains over 30” in some areas, Mansfield is currently mobilizing carrier assets and supply inventory from hundreds of miles away to prepare for the storm impact and to keep our customers in these areas supplied. Over the coming days, numerous factors may impact fuel delivery capacity – interrupted supply, severe traffic congestion, lines at terminals, carrier or driver shortages, and power outages.

We encourage our customers to stay in contact with your Mansfield sales representative or Customer Service Representative. Please let us know of any key operational changes at sites, power outages, closures for evacuations, etc. We will work with each of you to the best of our abilities to ensure continuous supply.

During natural disasters, it is common to believe your tank must be full in order to ride out the storm. Mansfield asks that you please examine your site’s true required usage demand for the next week in order to avoid over-buying, which leads to pressure on an already strained supply and truck infrastructure. Please remember, emergency vehicles and evacuees are an important priority ahead of any major storm’s land-fall. Mansfield is continuing to monitor weather changes and is here to help you throughout the coming days.