Editorial: Nola Port At Half Capacity In Just Over Three Months

As we watched the dying embers of 2005 and contemplated the 2006 log as it was readied for the fire, we couldn’t help but ponder the variety of resolutions that came out of the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast. There are so many victims. For some it was loved ones. For others it was jobs and homes. For still others the loss may be only business related, and recovery is the target.

Recovery is everyone’s target, but the complexity of recovery varies drastically. Restoration, it appears, will be a much longer road to travel for some than for others. Nationally, folks have a pretty good understanding of the losses suffered from Katrina. We think no one is numb to the personal needs of victims. Why this Category 3 hurricane caused as much damage as it did is less easily understood, and engineers are looking into that problem. As for those who did or did not handle their response assignments correctly, that will be sorted out in time. How this might impact federal support is a mystery at this point.

So while we have concern for all hurricane devastated areas, our focus naturally turns to New Orleans—not necessarily because Nola and Louisiana have hollered “help” the loudest but because the Mississippi represents a major shipping corridor and New Orleans is a major cog. Katrina destroyed about one-third of the port, the Associated Press reminds us. It has now recovered about half of its business.

The outlook must have seemed pretty grim when observers told Port Director Gary LaGrange that there wouldn’t be a ship in the port for six months. He saw it differently. Bravado or not, LaGrange predicted the port would be back to 70 percent of normal operations within six months. So far, his prediction seems right on. The port is running at half capacity. While 36 to 40 ships a week called at the port before Katrina hit, the count is now 18 to 20, the AP reported on December 27.

The final cost figures on damage are probably a long way off, but according to LaGrange, the port suffered damages to the tune of $100 million. Businesses dependent upon the port are estimated to have suffered upwards of another $300 million. About 30 percent of the port no longer exists “as we knew it,” he said. That portion of the port nearest the Industrial Canal was virtually wiped out.

Of the many businesses depending on the port, AP reminds us of Cold Storage and Warehousing Ltd., which exports frozen chickens. When Katrina knocked out power, the firm was left with 52 million pounds of rotting chicken. But company officials said the port’s successful operation make it possible for the company to expand as it did to three cold-storage warehouses. They predict reopening with half of their capacity early next year.

As we continue to watch recovery play out, we can keep in mind that last year the number of ships that loaded and unloaded at the port was 1,904. The port handled 10.4 million tons of general cargo and 169,304 freight containers at a site that included 22 million square feet of cargo-handling area, AP reported.

The advent of Katrina has rekindled an old battle between those who would like to see the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) closed and those who believe it should not be. The 76-mile-long MRGO provides access from the Gulf to the port’s Inner Harbor Navigation Canal. Blue-water ships depend on it, because most deep-draft vessels cannot get through the Industrial Canal. If the MRGO were to be closed, improvements early on to the Industrial Lock would seem imperative. As we reported in the past, closure of the Outlet would heap additional problems on companies sited there. The plot would certainly thicken.

Considering the labor shortages some say were exacerbated by high wages offered to those working in debris removal, the recovery effort will continue to be a perplexing one. Shipyards are short of help. Some employees left the region for good. Others moved to debris removal for better pay.

Another serious factor has surfaced in New Orleans. The mayor would like to bulldoze 2,500 homes in one area and has designated others in another area to meet the same fate. But the left hand appears not to know what the right hand is doing. Some of the same homes marked by the city for destruction were marked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for restoration.

The pace of recovery for the Port of New Orleans will keep our attention for some time. Its current payroll of 275 people does not seem so drastic, even though it is less than the 330 before Katrina’s arrival. LaGrange is working hard to make port operations as big as they were before the storm.

Helping him to bring about that development are expectations for a jump in foreign steel imports following the elimination of steel tariffs and restarting of the cruise business. Then, too, there is the frozen-chicken business, which hopes to be up and running at half capacity soon.

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