Crowley Maritime said Hurricane Fiona caused no significant damage to its terminal facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and cargo operations would resume Monday evening.
Cargo-handling operations on the combination roll-on/roll-off container ship El Coqui were slated to begin at 6 p.m., according to David DeCamp, Crowley’s director of corporate communications, who said the vessel arrived at the Port of San Juan earlier in the day.
“Crowley’s facility in San Juan has received no significant damage and our warehousing and terminal operated on normal hours using backup power generation today,” DeCamp told American Shipper.
The Coast Guard issued a statement early Monday afternoon that the Puerto Rican ports of San Juan, Arecibo, Ceiba, Culebra, Fajardo and Vieques had reopened after the passing of Hurricane Fiona but that operations would be limited to daylight hours until further notice. The ports of Guanica, Guayama/Las Mareas, Guayanilla, Mayaguez, Ponce, Salinas/Aguirre, Tallaboa and Yabucoa remained closed.
DeCamp said Crowley was prepared for Hurricane Fiona’s arrival.
“Our hurricane contingency plan, updated annually just before each hurricane season, includes specific preventive actions to be taken before, during and after a major event to protect lives, assets and to secure the continuity of our operations. We ensure inventory levels of water, diesel, gasoline, batteries, satellite phones and medicine are sufficient,” he said.
DeCamp said the Isla Grande Terminal had equipment that enabled it to resume operations despite most of the island being without power in the wake of the hurricane, which slammed Puerto Rico on Sunday.
“Our terminals are equipped with redundant power-generating systems to support uninterrupted service,” DeCamp said.
Christened in 2018, the Crowley vessel El Coqui is powered by liquefied natural gas and delivers goods in a loop between Jacksonville, Florida, and Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico almost five years to the day after Hurricane Maria, which heavily damaged the island’s supply chain infrastructure on Sept. 20, 2017.
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Click here for more American Shipper/FreightWaves stories by Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills.
