Anheuser-Busch Sends Emergency Drinking Water to Support Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts

ST LOUIS, MO . (August 28, 2017) – Anheuser-Busch is delivering three truckloads – over 155,000 cans – of emergency drinking water to help communities in the Gulf Coast area in response to Hurricane Harvey.

An initial truckload was sent from Anheuser-Busch’s Cartersville brewery in Georgia and delivered to the American Red Cross in Baton Rouge on Monday, August 28 with the generous help of Mockler Beverage, one of Anheuser-Busch’s wholesaler partners. Two additional truckloads are being sent to an American Red Cross facility in Arlington, Texas scheduled to arrive in the coming days.

The Cartersville brewery halts production periodically throughout the year to prepare canned drinking water so as to be ready to help American communities in times of need.  This clean, safe emergency drinking water was already canned and ready to be shipped when the Red Cross issued an urgent request to support communities hit by Hurricane Harvey. 

“Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help in these situations” said Bill Bradley, Anheuser-Busch’s Vice President for Community Affairs.

Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast early Saturday with winds over 100 mph and devastating floods in some areas. The American Red Cross prepared over 50 shelters to support thousands of potentially displaced people.

Anheuser-Busch has three facilities in Houston: one large brewery, its craft partner Karbach, and the Longhorn glass bottle facility.  The three facilities together have approximately 1,100 employees and all are safe. As employee safety is the foremost and primary concern, Anheuser-Busch will continue to monitor the rain and evaluate next steps as the weather evolves.

Mr. Bradley added: “The safety of our colleagues is paramount and we are proud of the work our Houston team has done over the weekend to keep our team safe in these difficult and exceptional circumstances.”

Anheuser-Busch has a longstanding tradition of providing water and supplies to those affected by natural disasters nationwide. In 2016, Anheuser-Busch produced and shipped emergency drinking water to communities hit by natural disasters, including the California wildfires, the Louisiana floods and Hurricane Matthew. Since 1988, the St. Louis-based brewer has provided over 76 million cans of drinking water to aid disaster-stricken areas.