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The 2019 Hurricane season is once again upon us and this year’s season opener was a monster. Over Labor Day weekend, Hurricane Dorian became a Category 5 disaster that, thankfully, turned just enough to spare J.J. Taylor Distributing Florida, Inc.’s Jupiter and Ft. Pierce offices from a direct hit.

Unfortunately, their off-shore neighbors in the Bahamas didn’t fare so well.

To help, the beer distributor sent 15 pallets of bottled water to support the relief effort and will be sending additional shipments.

That’s right — 15 PALLETS. That’s 28,350 bottles or 2,657 gallons of fresh water. In the aftermath of a storm like Dorian, it can take weeks for water lines to be restored. Often, even the lines that are working are contaminated with pollution or sea water. And in the Bahamas, many islands have no natural source of fresh water and rely on transported supplies year-round. All of which makes donations like this critical to helping people as they recover from the storm.

Driver Tom Handerhan volunteered to make the drive from the J.J. Taylor warehouse in Tampa to the collection point in Stuart.

On their Ft. Myers team, Mike Snow helped out and sourced 15 pallets of tarps (over 5,000 tarps) for roofing and cover. Once again, Handerhan volunteered to drive the delivery to Stuart. The tarps were loaded on barges and delivered to the Bahamas on Sunday, September 7.

NBWA also thanks the many J.J. Taylor team members also making personal contributions.

If you’d like to help the Bahamas recovery, J.J. Taylor recommends www.Operation300.org, a local non-profit coordinating with federal and state elected officials and giving 100% of proceeds directly to the relief effort.