Hurricane Ida was no joke. The hurricane inflicted disaster on the communities along the southern U.S. border where it struck, leaving major damage to infrastructure, neighborhoods, and equipment that was anywhere along the coast. Naturally, one of the major areas experiencing devastating repercussions was the ports of Louisiana.
In light of the unavoidable damage and delays caused by Hurricane Ida to several Louisiana ocean ports, port officials are requesting aid from the federal government to help them get back on their feet.
Recent reports show that the ports of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Fourchon, Morgan City, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, South Louisiana and Terrebonne made a request on September 7th that the president include them in urgent relief funding from congress.
Naturally, as a result of the massive increase in consumer import demand, and the low container availability and capacity, ports have already suffered from severe congestion, delays, and setbacks. In addition, COVID outbreaks and rules have resulted in a decreased labor bandwidth at most U.S.-based Ocean ports, disenabling them from handling the same container volume that would have been considered reasonable before the pandemic. Adding Hurricane Ida into the mix only makes things even more complicated.
Hurricane Ida made landfall on August 30th, and Port NOLA limited their operations on September 2nd due to the implications of the storm. Activity remained partially suspended until September 7th (five days after the initial landfall of the hurricane) when they finally resumed activity. However, the implications of the storm have left NOLA and other ports scrambling to catch up with incoming vessels.
The Coast Guard is working to alleviate obstructions to the waterways that are causing delays. These obstructions are a mix of shipping vessels, fishing boats, oil vessels, and even debris from the storm. However, recent reports indicate that the majority of obstructions are fishing boats.
Port NOLA alone supports an estimated 120,000 jobs and has an economic impact of nearly $30 billion of cash flow.
“To restore this economic engine fully and preserve the thousands of jobs that depend on it, we respectfully ask that the White House urgently request funding from Congress to address these issues as soon as possible to help us collectively move forward from these significant impacts.”
If you have any questions you’d like answered, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our team members! We would love to help you and your team out in any way we can!