Railroads recovering from storm; ports will take longer to reopen

Washington (Platts)--31Aug2005

Railroads and ports in the South battered by Hurricane Katrina were starting
to recover as the storm, now a tropical depression, moved north.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease told Platts Coal Trader rail service was still
suspended from Montgomery, Ala., south, and from Chattahoochee, Fla., west to
New Orleans. Montgomery's operations remain unaffected by the storm, and the
terminal was handling rail traffic. 

Coal shipments to utilities were moving slowly as they were being rerouted for
the most part, although deliveries to and from Gulf ports had stopped. Trains
were using gateways at Memphis and East St. Louis for exchange with western
railroads.

"We are in good shape as far as utility shipments in the Southeast," he said.
A rail embargo between New Orleans and Mobile on both CSX and Norfolk Southern
remained in effect.

CSX crews were conducting inspections and clearing debris between Montgomery
and Flomaton, Ala., making repairs to signals, and replacing highway-rail
crossing arms as necessary. Along the Pensacola bayfront, teams were restoring
ballast to track affected by the storm.

With the exception from Mobile to New Orleans, which he said had fairly heavy
water and debris damage, "we expect to get those lines open possibly and
probably late [Tuesday] or first thing in the morning." 

Sease said western Tennessee had spotty commercial power outages affecting
code line and signals as Tropical Storm Katrina moved north.

PORT RECOVERY SLOWER
Recovery is coming slowly to the Ports of Mobile and New Orleans as they work
to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and both ports remain closed.

Judith Adams of the Alabama State Port Authority said an initial inspection of
the port's 20-mil-ton/year McDuffie Coal Terminal was encouraging.

"The coal piles were in good shape; the equipment was in good shape," she told
Platts Coal Trader Tuesday afternoon. "There was no noticeable damage except
maybe to some shingles, but we won't know until we get power to the island."

The news wasn't as good for the port's bulk material handling terminal, which
handles most of its import coal. Adams said a drilling rig that had broken
free from a neighboring shipyard and was wedged between Pier E and the bulk
facility broke free, damaging the pier's fenders and "completely destroying" a
barge loader. She said the rig was stuck under the Africatown-Cochran Bridge
of Interstate 10 and the bridge was closed.

Adams said downtown Mobile was underwater, including substations, transformers
and the first floor of the port's main office building. The port will remain
closed until power can be restored and the ship channel can be dredged. She
said the port's main dock is "a mess" with debris -- mostly empty containers
-- floating in the yard and some of the warehouses have flooded.

The Army Corps of Engineers was surveying the channel Tuesday afternoon. While
there was talk that the channel could reopen Wednesday, Adams said it would
probably take at least another day. "There is a daunting task before the Corps
and Coast Guard."

The Port of New Orleans didn't fare as well. "We'll be very, very fortunate to
be open in the next 30 days," Cynthia Swain, directory of security and safety,
told Platts Coal Trader Tuesday.

She said the port had both building and wharf damage and that a tug boat in
for repairs broke away during the storm, damaging the dry dock. But even if
the facilities were repaired and power restored, Swain said getting personnel
and access to the port poses a problem since many residents evacuated or lost
their homes.

Michael Titone, president of the Mississippi River Maritime Assn., told Platts
Coal Trader he had spoken to the captain of the port, who was "generally
pleased" with a preliminary fly over. "There was no pollution or visible
obstructions to deep draft navigation observed during the fly by," he said.
However, the Corps has not yet assessed the channel to see if dredging is
necessary.

A Coast Guard spokeswoman said the lower Mississippi River was reopened from
MP 507 to the mouth of the river for tug and barge traffic only, but deep
draft traffic was prohibited. She also said the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway was
still closed between MP 89 and MP 69. 

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