As many news stations are reporting, Hurricane Milton is on its way to make landfall in Florida later this evening, Wednesday October 9, or early Thursday morning on Oct. 10. This storm is changing speed and strength by the hour, but the effects are already being seen along Florida's Gulf Coast. Strong winds, heavy rains, tornadoes in Central Florida, and a large storm system surrounding the eye of the hurricane has already led to minor flooding, superficial damage, and evacuation orders to cities across Florida. More closures and destruction to come as the storm makes landfall.
As with previous storms, we are anticipating warehouse closures in addition to overland & ocean transport impacts throughout the state. Since the hurricane is expected to cut across the peninsula of Florida, it will affect many facilities, lanes, and modes of transportation on both coasts. The Ports of Key West, St. Pete, Tampa, SeaPort Manatee, Port Canaveral, and Jacksonville have all already announced closures to all vessel traffic and cargo operations due to the high winds and projected storm strength.
As we saw with Hurricane Helene, the best way to get information about what areas are closed or presently have limited service is to check specific websites, such as UPS, FedEx, or Estes. These shippers will need time to assess the extent of the impact even after Hurricane Milton makes landfall, so please be patient with communication.
If you are concerned about specific loads, areas, or warehouses, please contact your Freight Manager or Warehouse Manager for details. They are diligently working to connect with our warehouse partners & carriers to provide the most up-to-date information to project teams.
While the focus in Florida is on the approach of Milton, transportation and logistics throughout the rest of the East and Gulf Coasts are beginning to return to normal after the multi-day labor strike at ports throughout the region.
We have been keeping an extremely close eye on the port statuses and dwell times following the work stoppage; however, despite fears of weeks of impact, traffic flow appears to have bounced back quickly. Bigger ports, such as New York/ New Jersey or Savannah, GA will take more time to get back to "normal", but are still handling as much traffic with as little down time as we could hope for. Individual terminals will vary, but we are seeing many ports across the East and Gulf Coast back at work and handling their regular traffic with minimal delays.
Please contact your Freight Manager with concerns about specific ports, terminals, or containers.