The Alabama State Port Authority incurred very little damage to facilities and equipment from Tropical Storm Gordon and was able to open its facilities to cargo operations yesterday (9/5/2018) at 1:00 p.m. “We were fortunate that we did not see any impacts at our terminals,” said Jimmy Lyons, direct and chief executive officer for the Port Authority.
The US Coast Guard, the Alabama Bar Pilots and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s spent most of the day assessing storm related impacts to the channel and to the aids to navigation. At 3:45 pm yesterday, the USCG Captain of the Port reopened to port to vessel traffic with restrictions pending further surveys of the outer bar channel entrance to the port. Vessels with 38 ft. draft or less can now transit the channel, and the Bar Pilots are beginning to move ships in and out of the port. “The offshore seas were just a bit too rough to survey accurately the entrance to the port. We are hoping by tomorrow the seascape will have diminished enough to get a full survey and resume full draft navigation,” said Smitty Thorne, deputy director and chief operating officer.
