Over Two Decades of Emergency Response Support, From the Caribbean to the Gulf Coast

When hurricanes and other natural disasters occur, the impact can be devastating. Timely evacuation prior to the event and rapid response following it are critical to saving lives and minimizing loss. Federal agencies charged with emergency planning and response depend on trusted partners able to execute that mission under conditions in which normal operations no longer hold — airports suspending flights, evacuation routes at capacity, and fuel and other critical resources and supplies exhausted.

Evacuation on compressed timelines. Hurricane evacuation planning and emergency transportation solutions operate against rapidly narrowing time windows. Successful outcomes depend on proactive planning, sufficient resource capacity, and dynamic operational execution with built-in redundancies.

In October 2024, with Hurricane Milton nearing landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Office of Refugee Resettlement contacted MVM after a Hillsborough County shelter’s primary evacuation plan fell through, leaving children in the shelter without a way out. Tampa International Airport had announced it would suspend all flight operations the following morning, closing the region’s remaining air options. MVM rapidly mobilized transportation assets and personnel and leveraged strategic partnerships to transport the children out of Florida 16 hours after receiving the request and ahead of the storm making landfall. In total, MVM evacuated 57 children from Hillsborough County shelters to receiving facilities in New York and Texas.

Fourteen months earlier, as Hurricane Idalia tracked north through the Gulf and placed the Tampa Bay area under mandatory evacuation orders, MVM deployed dozens of transport staff to Tampa, staged vehicles overnight, and transported 114 children to safety across four coordinated evacuations ahead of the storm making landfall.

Field site mobilization, staffing, and supply-chain solutions. MVM provides site mobilization, staffing, and supply-chain solutions that enable emergency services agencies to rapidly respond to natural disasters and other emergency situations.

When FEMA required emergency support services across the Caribbean, MVM mobilized 21 sites with the required personnel in less than 24 hours. Operating across numerous islands beyond the reach of mainland vendor networks, MVM leveraged the company’s dedicated procurement and transportation channels, pre-positioned equipment reserves, vetted medical and screening partners, and strategic communications capabilities to facilitate critical emergency response operations.

Emergency planning and response operations are measured by what they prevent. Achieving positive outcomes — across agencies, geographies, and disaster types — requires a partner that understands the operating environment, has performed in it, and can be relied upon when conditions leave no margin for error. For more than two decades, federal agencies have trusted MVM to meet that standard, protecting the people in their care and sustaining the missions that serve them.