This paper investigates effective responsiveness of humanitarian logistics. The importance of this issue lays in the fact that humanitarian logistics became a concern to Oman since the last decade, as natural and man-made disasters have been on the rise in the region. Therefore HL is considered to be the most challenging sub-function in logistics which is responsible of moving relief items to disaster sites. This is done through planning, controlling, procurement, transporting, warehousing, tracking, tracing and so forth. The paper is mainly focused on response time and its three stages: pre, during and post disaster response.To zero in on the topic, a matrix was designed to clarify some factors were investigated in which it effect the classification of disasters. These factors are location (dispersed or localized) and controllability (high or low). In order to understand the issue further, a literature review and case studies from Oman were observed and provided as evidence to be discussed and to critically analyze the challenges, impact and strategies adopted to enhance the different phases of response life cycle.