Source: Lloyd’s Loading List
Date: 8th September 2021
The Port of New Orleans has restarted container vessel operations nine days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in southeast Louisiana as a category 4 storm.
The first two ships worked at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal were the 2006 built, 8,034 teu MSC Charleston (IMO: 92995337) at New Orleans Terminal and Hapag Lloyd’s 2005 built, 5,018 teu CSL Manhattan (IMO: 9289556) at Ports America.
Container on barge service was worked by Ports America.
“The Port of New Orleans and New Orleans Public Belt Railroad are resilient and strong,” said chief executive. “Our wharves are busy today, handling both container and breakbulk cargo vessels, and trains are moving.”
Port NOLA’s breakbulk vessel operations resumed September 2, four days after Hurricane Ida with the 2017 built, 37,637 dwt MV Ishizuchi Star (IMO: 9811919) that worked at Coastal Cargo.
New Orleans Public Belt Railroad operations also resumed on September 2 to connect with BNSF Railway, CN, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific.
Navigation on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway east of the Mississippi River through the Inner Harbor Canal Lock has also resumed.
The port said its terminals and industrial real estate properties sustained no major damage, due to their location within the $14bn federal Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.
Port NOLA’s Louisiana International Terminal development, also located within those boundaries, was not materially impacted by the storm.
The lower Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico is one of the world’s busiest port complexes, with 6,000 oceangoing ships a year transiting the river, carrying 60% of the nation’s export grain and 20% of its energy.
The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement From estimated that approximately 79.3% of the current oil production and 77.9% of current natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut in.
Workers remain evacuated from 79 of the 560 manned production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.