While Florida ports escaped Hurricane Ian unscathed, they were prepared for the worst
10/18/2022
By Grace Renderman, Associate Editor
Despite the destruction Hurricane Ian delivered late last month to Floridian shores, area ports recorded little or no damage.
The Category 4 hurricane killed 87 people and caused waters to rise to 15 feet higher than normal on the Sunshine State’s beaches. It was the strongest storm to hit Florida in four years, and the first time southwest Florida — where Ian made landfall on Sept. 28 — weathered a Category 4 hurricane since 2004, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
With top windspeeds of 155 mph, the storm fell just short of being classified a Category 5 hurricane, the most severe classification.
SeaPort Manatee (formerly Port Manatee) incurred minor wind damage, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the port from getting back to normal after the storm passed, says Director of Communications and Public Relations Virginia Zimmermann.
"Once the port reopened … nothing really prevented us from picking up our operations immediately on the land side,” she says. “We had fuel deliveries — the trucks started leaving our port and bringing fuel products to southwest Florida pretty quickly. And we had, for example, three fuel tankers sitting out in the Gulf of Mexico waiting to come into the port as soon as the shipping channel reopened.”
In northern Florida, the Port of Jacksonville only needed minor repairs to awnings and screen shades, Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) Senior Director of Communications Chelsea Kavanagh said in an email.
The port was closed for two days as the storm passed, but Jaxport officials expect to make up the difference in lost revenue over the next few months, she said.
“We missed two scheduled cargo ship sailings and one cruise sailing during [Hurricane] Ian,” Kavanagh said. “For context, we had a total of 1,567 vessel calls for the entire fiscal year. We expect that the majority of the cargo that didn’t move during the two days we were closed during Ian will be made up on subsequent vessel sailings over the next few months.”
Florida ports were closed for both ocean and rail business for at least one day as Hurricane Ian made landfall.
Deep dive into preparation
It takes a lot of coordination, cooperation and communication to prepare for a storm. While all ports have their own procedures, processes and protocols for major weather events, the U.S. Coast Guard has the final say on whether a port’s commercial water channels stay open.
Since the Coast Guard governs U.S. waters, it ultimately determines whether channels are active, need to be inspected and when they can reopen after a storm. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is charged with inspecting ports’ shipping channels before they reopen to business. Inspections may take up to 48 hours because all debris must be removed from the path of container ships, especially large barges that require deeper water, Zimmermann says. On the land side, the Corps conducts a land survey before clearing the port’s operations by rail and road.
Ports operate under a system that uses the phonetic alphabet — think Alpha, Bravo, Charlie — to describe weather conditions. At the Whiskey level, the storm’s arrival is expected within 72 hours; at X-ray, Yankee and Zulu levels, the port is preparing for it to hit within 48, 24 and 12 hours, respectively. Most ports begin to secure their assets at the Whiskey level; when a port is under Yankee and Zulu conditions, it’s effectively closed to business, Zimmermann says.
“The Coast Guard will say we have this possibility of gale-force winds entering our area within 72 hours, and that kicks off a lot of the preparation,” she says. “But even before that, there are phone calls [with] the port heavy weather advisory group … to talk about any potential impacts and steps that need to be taken.”
The maritime community — made up of ports, industry associations, private businesses and other related entities — works closely with local, state and federal departments when there’s a hurricane on the horizon, says Port Tampa Bay Director of Emergency Management Matt Thompson. That would include the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the governor’s office and, in especially severe cases, the White House.
Ports also work with the National Weather Service to prepare for a storm. Port Tampa Bay has a comprehensive emergency management plan that involves tracking the storm’s path, predicting surges and working with advisory groups, Thompson says. Storm surges, which happen when strong hurricane winds push the water to the shore at abnormal levels, are especially dangerous in the low-lying areas of Florida. Port Tampa Bay is only 10 or 11 feet above the water, he says.
"Tampa Bay can act as a bowl — a lot of the areas around the bay are low-lying,” Thompson says. “Any significant storm surge, eight-plus feet, can result in major flooding.”
Port Tampa Bay also works with its facility tenants, including CSX, Gateway Rail and fertilizer producer and distributor The Mosaic Co., to coordinate land cargo delivery, Thompson says. The port ships mostly agricultural commodities by rail, including fertilizer, ammonia, grains, wheat and ethanol. It also receives nearly half of the fuel shipments that come into the state.
"The port may be restricted from moving ships at a certain time by Coast Guard requirements, but we may still be able to get those last shipments in or out by rail, until we eventually have to shut that down,” Thompson says.
Variations from port to port
The inner workings of emergency storm management vary. Some ports, like the Port of Virginia, have their own police force and response teams that help get things back up and running, says Director of Media Relations Joe Harris. The first response is always to communicate with customers and ground container stacks.
Some container stacks have anti-sway technology to help guard against gale-force winds that could otherwise knock them over, Harris says. Some systems use image sensors on container cranes that feed data to crane operators and cargo handlers to ensure safe movement.
"We have a very specific process that is focused on the safety of people and resumption of operations,” Harris says. “High winds of 30 knots or greater are dangerous. Anti-sway tech has a limit.”
The port’s Maritime Incident Response Team can communicate with other emergency response entities to coordinate damage assessment and other activities around Norfolk waters, all the way up the Elizabeth and James rivers to Richmond, he says.
The port has a stormproof structure that enables remote monitoring of seaside and land operations; the Coast Guard also conducts aerial surveys to assess any damage. Port of Virginia management also communicates with employees to ensure terminals are ready to send and receive cargo when the shipping channels come back online, Harris says.
