LOGISTICS PERSPECTIVE

Northeast Florida has seen its fair share of hurricane impacts, fortunately with no recent direct hits.

Rick Schiappacasse is director of forest products and specialty cargoes for JAXPORT. He said that the port’s contingency planning is thorough: “For breakbulk and project cargoes, everything is pre-planned,” with broad collaboration and exceptional communication between the port, the maritime community, customers and other supply chain members. He said hurricane preparedness is a well-oiled machine. There are some commodity-specific preparations, honed by long years of experience with tropical weather. For example, simply rolling down warehouse doors isn’t enough; some facilities barricade doors, often making use of available containers, railcars or heavy equipment.

But as much as possible, the port tries to move high and heavy cargo out before a storm. “For transformers and similar cargo, the moves are pre-programmed to go through the port rather quickly. Most of the time we don’t store them. The really heavy stuff goes directly between ship and truck or barge, so we don’t usually have cargo stuck at the port during a storm situation,” Schiappacasse said.

For planning and preparation, response and recovery, technology has made life easier. “We now have camera access to almost everything. After a storm we do a video assessment of dangers and damage before people show up,” he added.

Another boon to emergency response and recovery has been the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS). In decades past, when extreme weather wiped out cell towers, communications were stymied. “Now we have a communications plan in place that works well,” Schiappacasse said.

Transportation infrastructure is more robust than ever before, but it is challenging to prepare for the long term. Transportation entities may not know how much or when sea level will rise, or just how exactly rising temperatures will impact their weather, but many are doing mitigation assessments and focusing on resiliency.

Based in the U.S., Lori Musser is a veteran shipping industry writer.

Government Services At Hand

For ubiquitous weather challenges, most governments offer help.

In the U.S., the Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, has multilayered proficiencies and mandates to help industry get safely through extreme weather, such as hurricanes, that have a predilection for shoaling up shipping channels.

Donnie Walker is military planner and field force engineering program manager for the South Atlantic Division, USACE. He said USACE operations include Pre-Incident Preparedness: “This could be in a form of port exercises, ‘All Hazards and Hurricane Table Top Exercises’, workshops, individual/team training, etc.” The Corps’ contingency plans cultivate synchronization with federal partners, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, major support commands and USACE Districts. And, USACE maintains survey equipment across the region, allowing swift response and support of U.S. Coast Guard port opening operations.

“The typical damage after a storm is sediment shoaling, debris or obstructions in the channel, and damage to Aids to Navigation. USACE and Coast Guard work in close coordination to preposition survey vessels to identify channel impacts,” Walker said. Along with routine dredging contracts, USACE also utilizes the U.S. Navy Sea Systems Command to provide emergency response for the removal of sunken vessels and other obstructions.

Jeffrey Carroll is the emergency manager, South Atlantic Division of USACE. He said: “Hurricanes manifest either off the west coast of Africa or in the Gulf of Mexico. With the average speed of 10 miles per hour, it takes several weeks before these systems reach [our] area of operation… As hurricanes get closer and the models provide more clarity as to where the systems will go, funding requests are made, Emergency Operation Centers are activated, FEMA activates, and assets are prepositioned.”

Keeping channels open is an imperative. U.S. seaports handled close to half of the country’s roughly US$4.6 trillion in trade in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. BB