Lessons from Hurricane Katrina: How Toyota Helped SBP Reimagine Disaster Recovery

After Hurricane Katrina displaced more than 1 million people in the Gulf region and caused an estimated $125 billion in damages, one of the most significant challenges of recovery was time. Many families waited years to return home.

Early rebuilding work in the greater New Orleans area revealed that traditional disaster recovery processes often moved too slowly. Many underinsured and uninsured homeowners affected by Katrina lacked the means to rebuild on their own. At the same time, the process of applying for, appealing, and securing federal disaster assistance was complicated.

That experience reshaped SBP’s mission: not only to rebuild homes, but also to reduce the time between disaster and recovery, increase community resilience, and help survivors navigate the systems intended to support them.

Helping People Recover More Quickly: The Toyota Production System

In 2011, SBP collaborated with Toyota Production System Support Center, Inc. (TSSC) to streamline disaster recovery operations. Toyota Motor North America introduced SBP to the Toyota Production System (TPS), which is an organizational culture of highly engaged people solving problems to drive performance. 

TPS is the underpinning of Toyota’s successful manufacturing process, and an organizational approach that makes problems visible so they can be solved quickly. It uses practical tools—like visual tracking boards—to improve efficiency and quality. In disaster recovery, these tools allow teams to see the status of every home at a glance, spot delays early, and get families back into their home faster.

The impact of TPS transformed SBP’s rebuilding operations. Before the partnership, rebuilding a home typically took 12 to 18 weeks. By applying TPS principles, SBP reduced the time it took to rebuild a home from an average of 116 days to 60, a 48 percent improvement. Re-work—projects delayed by mistakes or inefficiencies—also dropped by more than 50 percent, lowering costs and allowing resources to stretch further. 

“This collaboration with Toyota has been transformative. The expertise they donated to SBP allowed us to shrink the time between disaster and recovery, and that learning continues to deliver impact today. Every home we rebuild carries a piece of what Toyota taught us after Katrina,” said SBP Chief Operating Officer, Thomas Corley.

SBP’s adoption of the Toyota Production System strengthened our ability to help families return home faster—with fewer setbacks.

Sharing Knowledge to Scale Impact

Toyota also introduced SBP to the concept of Yokoten, a Japanese word that loosely translates, “If you do it well, share it.” SBP adopted it as a core value, embedding knowledge-sharing into its programs and collaborations. By passing along proven practices in rebuilding, preparedness and disaster assistance, SBP has helped other nonprofits and community groups bolster their own recovery efforts. This helps to accelerate the rebuilding process and strengthen resilience in hard-hit communities.

“Our goal is to help SBP build capacity to decrease the number of days to rebuild homes. It’s great to see it applied in other areas of their business and even share their know-how with other non-profits on the ground in disaster sites,” explains Jamie Bonini, President of TSSC.

The impact of SBP’s collaboration with Toyota has indeed extended far beyond TPS. 

• In 2015, Toyota donated a fleet of vehicles to SBP ($5M value) that keeps our teams on the ground and in motion after disasters. 
• From 2017 to today, Toyota has contributed $1 million annually to support SBP’s operations, enabling us to respond quickly in disaster-impacted communities, especially those within Toyota’s operational footprint. 
• This year, SBP deployed $100,000 of this funding from Toyota to provide advisory services in support of recovery efforts after the devastating floods in Central Texas, where Toyota operates a manufacturing plant. 
• Through its funding of SBP’s Resilience Fellows Program in communities across North Carolina, Mississippi, and Kentucky, Toyota has helped extend recovery and preparedness far beyond New Orleans. 

Together, these initiatives ensure that lessons learned in New Orleans are shared broadly, multiplying the impact across disaster-affected communities.

Continuous Improvement

Toyota helped SBP change not only how we rebuilt homes for disaster survivors, but also how well the rebuilding process worked. 

Thanks to our collaboration with Toyota Motor North America, since 2011, SBP has:

• Rebuilt homes for nearly 8,000 families, including many in Texas, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico, where Toyota has operations.
• Increased resilience for nearly 700 low-income homeowners by rebuilding their homes with IBHS FORTIFIED storm-resistant roofs.
• Reached more than 1,000 people with disaster preparedness education resources to increase readiness and reduce the impact of future storms.
• Supported more than 2,700 households to appeal their FEMA awards, increasing total collective FEMA awards by $6.2 million since 2021.

Today, every home SBP rebuilds—and every local group we train to navigate the disaster recovery process—reflects the influence of our collaboration with Toyota and TSSC. The learning SBP has incorporated through TPS has reshaped our operational thinking, improved our use of resources, and strengthened recovery.

“SBP’s collaboration with Toyota Motor North America and TSSC didn’t just help us rebuild homes for disaster survivors more quickly,” said SBP CEO Carol Markowitz. “It also informed the development of our knowledge-based advisory work that will help us scale our impact through training and consulting beyond the footprint of where we directly provide recovery services for survivors. This is what I’d describe as a truly transformational partnership.”

Nearly two decades after Hurricane Katrina, SBP’s collaboration with Toyota continues to enhance our impact and expand our reach. It has enabled us to aim higher and deliver on our promise of helping communities reduce the time between disaster and recovery not only in New Orleans, but also in the 16 communities across the U.S. and The Bahamas where SBP has responded to major disasters since we were founded.

Media contact:
Elizabeth Wright, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, SBP
[email protected]