Following the passing of Hurricane Matthew, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said that its ports are now fully operational after the Savannah River channel reopened.
The Savannah River channel reopened for commercial traffic on Wednesday, October 12 at 7 am local time, with 11 vessels transiting the channel by mid-afternoon, nine of which will be worked at Garden City Terminal and two at Ocean Terminal, according to the GPA.
By the end of the day, the Garden City Terminal was working nine vessels, moving nearly 800 containers per hour, with an anticipated 7,800 container moves for the day.
“Of all the ports affected by Hurricane Matthew, the Port of Savannah was hit the hardest,” US Coast Guard Cmdr. Amy Beach, Marine Safety Unit Savannah Commander , said.
As the largest single-terminal container facility in the nation and more than 9,700 feet of contiguous berthing space and 22 ship-to-shore cranes, Savannah was able to quickly recover from the storm with minimal impact to the supply chain, according to the GPA.
On October 10, 2016, power was restored to Colonel’s Island Terminal and Mayor’s Point and Logistec in Brunswick as well as at Savannah Port’s terminals. Following this, the GPA said on October 11 that all its terminals became operational.
Hurricane Matthew was passing very close to the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Due to this, major seaports in these states shut down their operations last week. On October 9, the hurricane was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it began to head out to the Atlantic, reaching maximum winds of 75 mph.
Earlier this week, US East Coast ports including those in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida started to return to normal operating conditions.