Weekly News Summary For September 22 - 28, 2008:
While Hurricane Ike may have been less lethal than feared, it was bad enough. The center of the Texas-sized Ike came ashore in Galveston September 13 at about 2 a.m. as a Category 2 storm, downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane since it lost some energy over the Gulf of Mexico.
Whether most residents of Galveston and Houston could take consolation from this is another question. The storm surge of 13 feet, while lower than the 20-plus feet some predicted, was more than enough to wipe out whole subdivisions and inflict devastating damage on Galveston Island, Bolivar Peninsula and other low-lying areas. Many thousands of families lost everything—no one will know exactly how many for some time.
As of September 15, most of Houston remained without power, and Houston officials set up a curfew from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Houston residents were under a boil order because of low pressure in the water system.
News was slower at first to come out of the Houston-Galveston area after Ike than came out of southern Louisiana after Hurricane Gustav—partly because the power outages were more widespread, more communications systems were down, and the evacuations were larger than Gustav’s. The Texas Public Utilities Commission estimated on September 14 that more than 2.4 million customers were without power. The U.S. Energy Department said 400,000 were without power in Louisiana and Arkansas. Power may take up to four weeks to reach some storm-damaged areas.
Ike’s official death toll in the Houston-Galveston area was 50 by September 17, including two who stayed in Galveston despite needing dialysis, and a cancer patient whose breathing machine lost power, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Orange County, east of Houston, suffered as much as eight feet of flooding. Much of Bridge City and downtown Orange were reported underwater. Orange County officials said the damage could be worse than that from Hurricane Rita, three years ago…
Frank T. Stegbauer may soon be one of the most innovative names in the history of the inland towing industry.
No, it’s not the Frank T. Stegbauer who is a Memphis entrepreneur and bought into Southern Towing two years after Baxter Southern started the company in 1958.
It’s the new Frank T. Stegbauer, a 120- by 34-foot line boat that Southern Towing has built at Steiner Shipyard in Bayou la Batre, Ala., and was designed by Shearer & Associates Inc. of Houston. It was designed without flanking rudders, and for that matter, it doesn’t have any rudders, tail shafts or stuffing boxes.
What makes it unique is the Frank T. Stegbauer was designed with Z-drives that rotate 360 degrees with fixed-pitch skewed wheels inside kort nozzles.
“In the past, Southern Towing bought secondhand towboats and rehabilitated them,” said Bill Stegbauer, Frank’s son and current president and chief executive officer of Southern Towing. “For the most part, a boat built in 1947 does the same thing as a boat built in 2008.”
Looking to expand its fleet of 18 boats, Stegbauer said he could not find any vessels still on the market that were in suitable condition to be refurbished at a reasonable cost. Reluctantly, Southern Towing looked at building new boats to expand its fleet….
With costs rising for dredging and maintaining aging infrastructure, a more regional approach to assigning priorities and allocating limited resources could be implemented for the Southeastern states, suggested Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel, commander of the Corps of Engineers’ South Atlantic Division.
“Establishment of a regional water-resource council in the Southeast could serve both the near-term requirements of representing the state interests in an intergovernmental regional water-resource planning effort, as well as provide a forum for long-term integrated regional planning and collaboration,” he said.
Schroedel urged consideration of a regional water-resources approach at the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Economic Development Conference in Point Clear, Ala., last month. His presentation was expanded upon in a concept proposal paper entitled “Establishing a Regional Forum to Address Water Resource Challenges in the Southeastern United States: A Concept for Regional Collaboration.”
Although he suggested the proposal could be expanded to more states, the paper received by The Waterways Journal suggested it start with the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
“Key federal partners with water-resource-related responsibilities would work with the states in support of the regional forum to form an effective regional intergovernmental team,” he said in a paper dated August 6…
In his annual “State of the Port” address September 17, Port of New Orleans president and chief executive officer Gary LaGrange offered a glimpse of the future of the port, including a three-fold expansion of container capacity, state-of-the-art break-bulk terminals and additional cruising capacity.
LaGrange began his address by taking a look back at what the Port was more than 20 years ago and where it will be beyond the next decade.
“Considering the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans is 112 years old and the Crescent Port Pilots are celebrating their 100-year anniversary, 22 years is a relative flash in the pan when it comes to the world of ports,” LaGrange said. “In 1986 and today, we had completed a strategic plan for the port that called for bold investments and forward thinking. Again in 2008, we have to be resourceful in finding new ways to meet our customers’ needs and create new economic opportunities for our city and state.”
LaGrange cited the city’s geographical advantage and natural resources as a prime force in moving Louisiana forward…
With 150 industry representatives and customers in attendance, Laborde Products opened its Houston branch office for sales, service and parts in Channelview, Texas, with a barbecue on August 14.
“Our mission statement says we will provide our customers with the right products for their applications with the right service and right support to keep that product working,” explained owner Tracy Laborde, who also serves as president and chief executive officer. “With this branch office, we will better serve the Houston area.”
Overnighting parts to a recreational boater may be acceptable, but commercial boats need to be able to get parts right away, explained Doug Oehrlein, the company vice president, who is based in Covington, La.
The Houston Branch office will stock all the parts needed to service engines, he said.
Another service that the Houston office will soon be offering is are “swing engines.”…
The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)
