Breweries switch from beer to water for hurricane relief

An Anheuser-Busch brewery in Georgia is switching from hops to water for victims of Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. And the parent company of a Fort Worth brewery is shipping thousands of cans of water to the affected region.

More than 100,000 cans of drinking water from the brewery in Cartersville, Ga., is being transported to Arlington and then to southeast Texas, according to NBC. MillerCoors, which operates a large brewery in Fort Worth, is sending 50,000 cans to people affected by the storm.

MillerCoors planned to ship its water from Shenandoah, Va., to its Revolver plant in Granbury where trucks will pick it up and transport it to the affected region. The company is also donating at least $25,000 to the Red Cross, it said in a blog post.

“This is clearly devastating and we are ready to pitch in and do our part,” spokesman Marty Maloney said in an email.

The company has set up a microsite in partnership with the Red Cross where employees can make donations to support victims of the storms, he said. MillerCoors will match any donations made.

Safe, clean drinking water is expected to be in short supply in southeast Texas, which was slammed by a Category 4 hurricane late Friday that has since degenerated to a tropical storm with relentless rain. Thousands of people have been flooded out of their homes and sought refuge in shelters across Texas.

The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Cartersville pauses beer-making periodically each year to make cans of water for emergencies and partners with the American Red Cross to get them where they’re needed.

The company says it has provided more than 76 million cans of drinking water to communities hit by natural disasters since 1988.

Two of its shipments are headed to Arlington later this week before making their way south.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Breweries switch from beer to water for hurricane relief."