Inventory planning and coordination in disaster relief efforts

► During disaster relief planning, officials should coordinate with the closest non-affected warehouses to store relief supplies. ► In situations when relief supply is stored in areas that are potentially hazardous due to pre-existing strategic placement decisions, additional costs associated with prepositioning can be avoided if existing inventory (which may also be subject to some loss) can cover the scenario with the highest demand surge. ► We characterize the level of service that can be achieved under different coordination mechanisms by identifying the amount of relief supply that is necessary to satisfy the needs of the affected population based on response time threshold levels.