Amazon FBA warehouse collapsed! Tornado in the United States brought huge losses

Just last weekend, Illinois, USA was hit by a severe tornado. An Amazon FBA warehouse was destroyed by the tornado, and a large number of sellers’ products were lost!

DLI4 According to online news, the code of the warehouse affected by the disaster is DLI4, which is a large distribution station used for transit and sorting in the product distribution chain. It does not routinely store large quantities of goods, and the number of employees is generally not more than 1,000. DLI4 is one of the distribution stations that was urgently put into use at the end of last year in response to the epidemic. It can accommodate 60 trucks at a time to load products and deliver them. Amazon has more than 600 distribution stations like DLI4 in the United States, providing sorting and transportation for smaller community distribution stations at a lower level.

At 8:27 p.m. Friday, U.S. time, the Illinois government officially issued a tornado warning. Eleven minutes later, a tornado hit the Amazon warehouse, directly overturning the roof of the FBA warehouse. The two 40-foot-high concrete walls of the warehouse were destroyed, and all kinds of products and warehouse structures in the warehouse were scattered all over the floor. That night, more than 50 night shift employees and third-party delivery masters were working in the warehouse. After receiving the alarm, 45 employees rushed to the tornado shelter set up in the warehouse. However, six people were still killed in the tornado attack. The six victims ranged in age from 26 to 62, and they were all warehouse staff.

And don’t be fooled by the fact that DLI4 is only half destroyed in the picture, maybe the other half can still be used, at least 50% of the processing capacity. But in fact, the destroyed part is the very important sorting and unloading area of ​​the distribution station, and the DLI4 warehouse is definitely impossible to recover in a short time.

What's more serious is that as a mid-range distribution station, DLI4 also connects with other FBA warehouses in the surrounding area and goods delivered from out of state, such as MDW2, MDW6, ORD6, etc. The suspension of DLI4 will inevitably cause a significant delay in the orders delivered to IL from these warehouses and out-of-state warehouses.

However, some people also envy the sellers whose goods were destroyed by the tornado. After all, they can get full compensation. Is this really the case?

Everyone knows that if products stored in FBA warehouses are lost or damaged, Amazon is responsible for compensation. But today this involves a rare reason. Will Amazon compensate for the loss of goods due to natural disasters? Generally, when we purchase commercial insurance for products, there will be a deductible clause. Natural disasters and wars are both deductibles. Insurance companies usually refuse to pay for these two reasons. So if FBA goods are destroyed by natural disasters, will Amazon compensate?

Amazon's backend compensation policy states that Amazon will provide compensation for any loss or damage of goods caused by Amazon or a third-party agency hired by Amazon, whether in the operating location (warehouse) or during the delivery process. Natural disasters are not excluded, but only some product warehouse registration and other compliance requirements are excluded.

When the official does not clearly state whether compensation will be paid, generally speaking, you should be able to get compensation. Here we refer to the mem1 fire incident last year. The sellers whose shipments were damaged at that time also received compensation. You can use the compensation amount calculation method in the figure below to see how much compensation your product can get.

Amazon’s backend also provides everyone with an inventory and compensation calculator to calculate the amount of compensation. Sellers who cannot find the entrance can chat with me privately.