Business, Freight News, Logistics, Sea

Hurricane threat blows over

[ September 1, 2011   //   Chris ]

Ports in the US North-East breathed a collective sigh of relief after Hurricane Irene passed through the region without inflicting any major damage or disruption to operations. Many ports had resumed or near-normal operations by about Tuesday 30 August or earlier, having shut down their operations over the weekend purely as a precaution.

“Fortunately the impact from the hurricane wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated –there some temporary flooding during the height of the storm but no property or cargo damage,” said Tom Keefer, deputy executive director at the Diamond State Port Corporation, which operates the Port of Wilmington, Delaware.

Like many ports in the affected area, Wilmington took precautions such as moving containers to higher ground and also kept a skeleton staff on site throughout the risk period to deal quickly with any situations as and when they arose. In common with the rest of the industry, ports were able to “bounce back quickly” once Hurricane Irene had passed.