Americas News
Savannah Bunkering Remains Closed Following Hurricane Matthew: Sources
Market sources Tuesday said operations at the port of Savannah, Georgia, including bunkering, had yet to resume following Hurricane Matthew's visit to the U.S. Atlantic coast late last week, Platts reports.
As Ship & Bunker reported last week, bunker operations at U.S. East Coast ports, including Savannah and Charleston, South Carolina, were bracing for Hurricane Matthew, which arrived in the region Friday and lasted into the weekend.
While bunkering operations at Charleston and Jacksonville, Florida are reported to have been back to normal on Tuesday, sources said the port of Savannah had yet to be cleared to resume operations by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).
Some navigation aids in the channel are noted to have been damaged, preventing vessels from entering or departing Savannah's port.
"Some buoys and range markers were dragged off-station," said one source, adding: "there's about a five-day backlog of ships waiting to come in."
A representative from the USCG Marine Safety Unit in Savannah confirmed the port remained closed, with repair and replacement operations ongoing on damaged navigational aids.
However, the Marine Safety Unit source could not provide an estimate of when the channel would be cleared to resume normal operations, nor the length of the backlog of ships waiting gain access to the port.
