Amazon operates 12 Disaster Relief hubs across seven countries, including a new wildfire relief hub in Edmonton, Alberta, the company’s first disaster relief hub in Canada. The hubs are located within existing fulfillment centers near disaster-prone regions, major cities, and transportation networks. Their purpose is to help nonprofit organizations and first responders receive donated emergency supplies within hours of a request.
Amazon’s largest Disaster Relief hubs can hold enough supplies to fill three Amazon Air 767 cargo planes at a moment’s notice, or 1.4 million items. The program, first launched in the United States in 2021, is designed to enable responses in two days or less—seven times faster than the previous average of 14 days for emergency supplies to reach first responders. Amazon says it has donated and delivered more than 30 million relief items since 2017 in support of communities affected by more than 200 natural disasters.
Preparing supplies before disasters strike
The Disaster Relief team works throughout the year with nonprofit partners to identify the items communities are most likely to need. It reviews data from past relief efforts and pre-packs supplies so they can be dispatched from the closest hub when hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, or other disasters occur. Items include tarps, medical supplies, cleaning products, and water filtration systems.
The kits are adapted to the requirements of local partners and affected communities. A pallet at the hub near Atlanta contains supplies for American Red Cross volunteers to establish a mobile office inside a shelter, including a printer and a power source. The Edmonton hub stocks N95 masks, air purifiers, heavy-duty rubber boots, and respirators, as well as supplies for child-friendly spaces for displaced families.
Supporting homes, families, and shelters
Amazon’s hubs also provide “muck and gut” kits for homes damaged by flooding. The kits typically contain buckets, rubber gloves, trash bags, shovels, brooms, mops, coveralls, goggles, and respirator masks. After the Guadalupe River in central Texas rose more than 26 feet in 45 minutes during the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2025, Amazon donated 155,000 relief items, including more than 23,000 supplies for home-restoration kits.
Following the central Texas floods, Amazon donated 16,000 hygiene kits from its Atlanta-area hub. The kits typically include combs, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, and loofahs. Employees assemble them into biodegradable bags, and the soap is vegan and alcohol-free to meet halal religious and ethical standards. Through a partnership with Save the Children, other pallets contain stress toys, coloring books, and stuffed animals for child-friendly spaces in shelters.
“While every disaster is different, we now have a better understanding of which items communities will need most when certain disasters strike,” said Abe Diaz, Amazon’s head of disaster relief. “We work with our relief partners to pre-pack items so they’re ready before they even need them.”