In the wake of Hurricane Irma, most of the Southeast ports are beginning to reopen. Port Miami, Port Everglades, Port Tampa Bay and Port of Charleston reopened yesterday, September 12th. The US Coast Guard and the Georgia Ports Authority also reopened Port Savannah as of this morning.
Over the weekend, Hurricane Irma changed course a bit and spared Miami a direct hit. Instead, the storm veered west and made landfall in the Florida Keys, causing much damage to the small islands and all along Florida’s West Coast. Storm surge and winds were a major factor throughout Florida and over 6 million residents are currently without power. The now tropical storm, continues to make its way north through Florida and into Georgia.
As Hurricane Irma works its way to the US Southeast, ports and carriers continue to prepare for what is anticipated to be disastrous to shippers and their supply chain. Ports from Miami to Savannah are rerouting and rescheduling shipments and this will continue through the weekend until early next week.
Following on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, Irma will once again test the supply chain on the US Southeast Coast, as well as the Gulf Coast. According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Irma, a classic Atlantic tropical storm, has sustained Category 5 cyclone status for nearly 2 days. It is the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic basin outside of the Caribbean Sea & Gulf of Mexico and it will bring with it strong winds of more than 180 mph, storm surge and potential flooding.
Days after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast, Texas ports are still working on getting reopened. Task force officials, headed by the Coast Guard, are in the beginning stages of assessing the conditions of the ports to determine what needs to be done before vessels can begin returning to the ports. As of Wednesday, the ports of Houston, Texas City, Galveston, Corpus Christi and Freeport were reopened for some vessel traffic including tugs and barges, but not without restrictions, and traffic is only allowed during daylight hours.
