We consider time-critical supply chains (SCs) in the Australia dairy industry and recovery policies in the presence of the ripple effect. Ripple effect is the impact of a disruption on SC economic performance and disruption-based scope of changes needed in the supply structures and parameters to preserve the resilience. First, we describe the ripple effect in general and one example of the ripple effect in the dairy SC in Australia. Second, we present a model for reactive recovery policies in the dairy SC under conditions of the ripple effect and exemplify them on a simulation example. The results of this study can be used in future for comparing proactive and reactive approaches in tackling the ripple effect from resilience and flexibility views.