The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) container vessel operations resumed today, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021, just nine days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in southeast Louisiana as a category 4 storm. The first two ships worked at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal were the MSC Charleston at New Orleans Terminal and the Hapag Lloyd CSL Manhattan at Ports America. Seacor’s container on barge service will be worked tonight by Ports America.

The Port of New Orleans resumed container vessel operations 9 days after Hurricane Ida
The Port of New Orleans resumed container vessel operations 9 days after Hurricane Ida

“The Port of New Orleans and New Orleans Public Belt Railroad are resilient and strong. Our wharves are busy today, handling both container and breakbulk cargo vessels, and trains are moving,” said Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO of Port NOLA and CEO of NOPB. “Our success can be attributed to coordination with a long list of partners: FEMA, MARAD, our local, state and federal leaders, terminal operators, tenants, International Longshoremen’s Association, river pilots, Entergy, Carnival Cruise Line, our dedicated Port and NOPB teams, and others.”

Port NOLA’s breakbulk vessel operations resumed Sept. 2, just four days after Hurricane Ida with the MV Ishizuchi Star that worked at Coastal Cargo. NOPB operations also resumed Sept. 2 to connect with BNSF Railway, CN, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. Navigation on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway east of the Mississippi River through the Inner Harbor Canal Lock has also resumed.

Though Hurricane Ida’s fierce winds caused mass power outage throughout the entire region and shut down operations, the port’s terminals and industrial real estate properties sustained no major damage, due to their location within the $14 billion federal Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System. Port NOLA’s Louisiana International Terminal development is also located within those boundaries; that property was not materially impacted by the storm.

Nationally, Port of New Orleans supports nearly 120,000 jobs and generates an economic impact of nearly $30 billion. Port NOLA is a top importer of coffee, steel, natural rubber and consumer goods, and a top exporter of frozen poultry and plastic resins for manufacturing. The Lower Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Gulf is one of the busiest port complexes in the world, with approximately 6,000 oceangoing ships annually transiting the river and handling 60 percent of the nation’s export grain and 20 percent of its energy.