Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said the Port of Savannah is quickly recovering from Hurricane Matthew, but cargo vessels are unable to reach the port until navigational aids are repaired.
Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) officials are
breathing a sigh of relief after Hurricane Matthew produced much less damage at
the Port of Savannah than originally feared, but vessels will be restricted
from sailing to the port until Wednesday morning, according to Executive
Director Griff Lynch.
Savannah’s
inland position spared it the full brunt of storm, a Category 2 by the time it reached Savannah, and was
felt more heavily 18 miles away along the coast. In addition, the storm surge was less
than forecasters predicted because Matthew wobbled slightly to the east at the
last minute. Heavy rain produced some localized flooding in the city.
The wind and heavy seas knocked some buoys
out of position near the entrance to the shipping channel at the mouth of the
Savannah River and commercial vessel traffic cannot resume until they are back
in place, Lynch said by phone.
The U.S. Coast Guard is moving some buoy
tenders and a cutter in place this evening to reposition the aids to
navigation, he said, and the port authority tentatively expects ships to start
transiting the river Wednesday morning, with ship operations at the docks
commencing around 1 p.m. the same day.
Container lines, advised of the situation,
are holding some vessels offshore or rejiggering the order of port calls. In
some cases, for example, box ships may reverse order and call the Port of
Jacksonville first and then sail to Savannah, Lynch said.
The massive Garden City Terminal, which was
fairly unscathed, will likely work eight container ships Wednesday, he said.
The biggest challenge was getting the labor
force to work Monday to get equipment out of storage and prepare for the
resumption of gate operations Tuesday morning, Lynch said. Many communities
around the port were devastated by the storm, but several hundred longshoremen
reported for duty.
Officials are predicting a record 11,000
container moves through the truck gates on Tuesday as shippers pick up boxes of
cargo that went uncollected for a few days. Lynch said most area trucking
companies have indicated they are ready to roll Tuesday with drayage
operations.
At the Ocean Terminal, which mostly handles breakbulk cargo, warehouses and sheds were open for business as normal on Monday and only suffered some minor roof and siding damage.
Damage
was also minor at the Port of Brunswick in southern Georgia. River pilots
are confident they can begin maneuvering ships in and out of the port on
Tuesday, Lynch said.
Both ports have full electricity to operate
cranes and all facilities, thanks to quick work by Georgia Power.
Lynch said the port authority is
conservatively estimating damage in Savannah and Brunswick will total about $1
million.
“And if that’s all it is, we’ll be very
satisfied,” he said.
Few containers stored at Savannah appear to
have been damaged, but a full assessment has yet to be completed.
It’s
been a tumultuous 90 days on the job for Lynch since taking over leadership of
the GPA. In addition to responding to Hurricane Matthew, his team dealt with
Tropical Storm Hermine and announced a major initiative to generate more
intermodal business in the Midwest.
Other ports in the Southeast were mostly able to resume regulator operations on Monday.