All marine container terminals at Port of New York-New
Jersey have now reopened or are close to reopening after having been closed for
days due to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
The Port Newark Container Terminal and the Global Terminal
opened their gates at 7 am for truckers on the morning of Nov. 5 and welcomed
their first vessels since the hurricane the night of Nov. 4.
The Port Elizabeth Terminal reopened the morning of Nov. 4 with
the arrival of four vessels at the Maher Terminals facility and another at APM
Terminals’ container terminal. Longshoremen were back to work and unloading
cargo at about 8 am Sunday, according to a Port Authority of New York-New
Jersey news release.
Also on Nov. 5, the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn received
its first cargo vessel since the storm. The New York Container Terminal on
Staten Island has now also reopened, with the first ship scheduled to arrive the
night of Nov. 6. Four additional vessels are also scheduled to arrive at the
terminal this week, according to the Port Authority.
With the port’s closure, ships had been forced to either
idle offshore or leave for other destinations on the US East Coast or
elsewhere.
Although the hurricane led to the closings of numerous ports
along the Eastern seaboard, including facilities in Maine, Connecticut,
Virginia and Maryland, most of those reopened in the day or two following the
storm. New York-New Jersey, which is near where the hurricane struck hardest, was
surged by nearly four feet of water and was without power for days.
NY-NJ is the third busiest port in the US, after Los Angeles
and Long Beach. In 2011, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey handled a
record 5.5 million 20-foot equivalent units worth more than $185 billion.
