Hurricane Francine Closes Port of New Orleans, FedEx Expects Local Delays
Hurricane Francine is anticipated to reach Category 2 intensity by the time it makes landfall in Louisiana Wednesday evening, and its presence is already throwing a wrench in some logistics operations in the Gulf Coast.
FedEx said in a service advisory Wednesday morning that delays and disruptions can be expected for inbound and outbound shipments in the affected region as the storm progresses.
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Customers can expect pickup and delivery services in the New Orleans and Lafayette, La. markets to be impacted due to the local conditions and restrictions.
Thus far, FedEx Express service is unavailable in 501 ZIP codes across Louisiana and Mississippi, according to FedEx. FedEx Ground is unavailable in 265 ZIP codes across the two states and operates limited service in 250. Twenty-two FedEx Office locations in Louisiana are closed.
The Port of New Orleans closed Wednesday morning after limiting its intake to non-hazardous and dry cargo the night before.
For Thursday, normal operations are still pending. They may resume at noon at the earliest depending on weather, and after terminal operators conduct damage assessments.
The remainder of the major ports in Louisiana are closed Wednesday as well, as per the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard declared port condition “Zulu” across the Port of New Orleans, South Louisiana, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Greater Baton Rouge early Wednesday. This is an indicator that sustained gale force winds of 39 to 54 miles per hour would reach the hub.
As long as Zulu is in place, no vessels could enter or transit through any of these ports without the permission of the Coast Guard.
On land, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reported five temporary closures in Louisiana, with alternate locations provided for each suspension. The company also temporarily suspended drop shipment acceptance operations at three processing and distribution center facilities.
According to global supply chain mapping and monitoring solution Resilinc, the hurricane will impact the operations of nearly 11,000 sites in the U.S. responsible for activities like manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, fabrication and product testing.
Currently a Category 1, Hurricane Francine is expected to affect the manufacturing of over 4,000 products, with more than 57,000 individual parts at risk for products customers use daily, the firm said.
As of 10 a.m. Central time, the hurricane was about 150 miles southwest of Morgan City, La., traveling northeast with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, according to an advisory by the National Hurricane Center.
After landfall, the center is expected to move northward across Mississippi on Thursday and Thursday night.
Francine is expected to bring storm total rainfall of four to eight inches, with local amounts to 12 inches across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, far southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle through Thursday night.
Francine’s strengthening brings about another major test for the logistics industry, which has already had to contend with several weather-related events this year, whether it be Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Debby, or various tornadoes in the Midwest. One such tornado tore through the center of a Dollar Tree distribution center in Oklahoma, forcing it to shutter operations for the foreseeable future.
Of the Class I railroads operating in the region, BNSF Railway is likely to see the most slowdowns.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad said interchanging traffic in the region stopped Tuesday night, with the company continuing to monitor levees and flood gates through the duration of the storm.
Due to the flooding concerns, BNSF issued a temporary permit embargo affecting all freight traffic originating or destined to move through the area.
As such, customers with shipments scheduled to move into the region should expect delays throughout the duration of this hurricane event.
Union Pacific didn’t announce any closures, or halting of operations, but indicated it was making network preparations to respond to the potential outages.
The railroad is taking measures including staging generators, rail ballast and panels, additional diesel fuel, hotels and supplemental transportation for crews. Additionally, UP’s signal team will begin securing rail crossing signal gate, while water pumps were strategically positioned to mitigate damage.
Both railroads have established command centers to facilitate emergency coordination.
Norfolk Southern said it had no impacted service areas. But due to the impacts to interchange traffic, it would work with connecting carriers to utilize alternative gateways where possible.
Port Houston said Tuesday that its terminals continue to operate as normal, with no plans for reduction in operations or service hours.
As early as Monday night, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended inbound vessel traffic at the Port of Galveston. Smaller vessels should seek shelter in preparation for a port closure, the Texas port said.