New Orleans traffic redirected to Houston

Airlines face ongoing loss of revenues Alan Peat LAST WEEK’S Hurricane Katrina has devastated the Mississippi area of the Gulf of Mexico – leaving thousands dead, a conservative estimate of US$25-billion in damage, the port of New Orleans shut down with the city still flooded at the end of the week, and the transport industry in the region thrown into chaos. News from the US Embassy in Pretoria was limited, with much of the communication network in the Gulf area out of action. “If you’ve been watching CNN, you know as much as we do,” said a spokeswoman for the Embassy. However, FTW has been able to gather more solid information from Gulf Africa Line (GAL), the MACS operation which is believed to be the only direct service between SA and the Mexican Gulf. Although still patchy, on-going news was released to us by GAL’s Markus Popken. In the middle of last week all Popken could tell FTW was that the GAL New Orleans operations office had been closed until further notice, and the staff relocated to the line’s office in Houston, Texas – now acting as an alternative for traffic originally destined for New Orleans. Assessing impact “We will spend the next two days assessing Katrina’s impact to navigation at the Mississippi River and the GAL’s liner berth at Globalplex,” Popken said on Wednesday. “Regretfully at this time it is believed the US Coast Guard service is heavily involved in search and rescue operations and the US Army Corps of Engineers is solely focused on fixing the levee breaches which are drowning New Orleans.” Even by Friday, firm news about port damage was still sparse. “We have been unable to contact anyone from Associated Stevedores in New Orleans,” said the short message from a GAL representative in the US. “I was told all their cranes had survived – but were afloat. “I know that many of their operations personnel are from St. Bernard and Chalmette - so they have all lost their homes due to flooding. I assume Associated will have to provide temporary housing for their workers. If the New Orleans region is to get back on its feet this is going to be a major issue - where to house the work force?” It was also understood that coastal cargo at New Orleans City Dock was down for 3-4 weeks – and the port’s labour force was looking for work in the Houston area. River barging was also an area of great concern – with damage assessments by the barge fleets still not completed. However, information received by FTW overnight last Thursday revealed that there were reports from the barge operators that the river north of New Orleans, above Mile 98, appeared to be navigable without obstructions. Barges sunk But there were also unconfirmed reports that in the vicinity of Mile 55, barges had sunk – and, if there are barges on the bottom, it may be sometime before their impact on the deep draft channel is known. There were also reports of three ships aground; one in Algiers and two at AMA Anchorage, though these vessels are not impacting the channel. “If the reports are true,” FTW was told, “it appeared that the channel might be close to being opened to some of the shallower draft vessels.” It was also confirmed that the Coast Guard had conducted a flyover of the channel and viewed some obstructions – but with no details as to where. And, according to the Coast Guard, it will prioritise vessel movements based on facility availability and other factors. “Once vessel movements resume there will be one way traffic and daylight only restrictions in place,” they told FTW. At the same time, it was noted that some terminals low on the river were gone – with the IMTT large coal/ferros terminal being named as one. What was certain was that numerous steel vessels had diverted to Houston, this also being the alternative port for discharge of New Orleans bound general cargo, and Mobile being named (but not confirmed) as the port for bulk cargoes. Air transport was also badly disrupted. “Because parts of the Gulf Coast are likely to remain badly damaged for an extended period, there will be an ongoing loss of revenues to airlines serving that region,” Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday.