Community   / /  Disaster Relief

Natural disasters strip communities of their homes, businesses and resources. They leave individuals separated from loved ones and the basic necessities of life. Anheuser-Busch has helped disaster victims since 1906, when Adolphus Busch donated funds to help San Francisco earthquake victims. When disasters strike, Anheuser-Busch and the Anheuser-Busch Foundation are ready to be part of the recovery by providing a helping hand to our friends in their time of need.

Examples of recent recovery efforts:

FLOODS

As record flooding gripped the Upper Midwest and Mississippi River valley in June 2008 and residents headed for higher ground, the nation’s largest brewer provided one of life’s necessities: safe drinking water to victims and relief workers. Local Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in those individual markets worked with the American Red Cross and other relief agencies to make certain the water is delivered to those in need. Click here to read more.

FIRES

In 2007, when nearly 1 million residents of Southern California were forced to evacuate their homes as a result of raging wild fires, the Anheuser-Busch Foundation donated $500,000 to The American Red Cross to aid relief efforts. Thousands of evacuees took refuge in shelters set up by the Red Cross, utilizing tens of thousands of blankets, cots and prepackaged meals provided by the organization. In addition to providing monetary support, Anheuser-Busch donated more than 500,000 cans of drinking water and nearly 15,000 cans of 180 Energy drinks for the victims of the fires and relief workers.

HURRICANES

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, Anheuser-Busch was ready to meet the victims’ most basic need – safe, pure drinking water. The Anheuser-Busch Packaging Group and our breweries stepped up, supplying 9.4 million cans of drinking water to relief agencies. Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch has supplied more than 59 million cans of drinking water to recovery efforts.

CHINA

Anheuser-Busch is ready to help our friends around the world. When an upstream chemical spill forced the Chinese cities of Harbin and Songjiang to temporarily shut down their municipal water systems, we answered the communities’ needs. Anheuser-Busch supplied safe well water at the gates of our breweries, circulated tanker trucks through the cities and donated an additional 35,000 cases of bottled water from our Budweiser brewery 1,250 miles away in Wuhan.