As we continue to monitor negotiation progress between the ILA and the USMX on the East Coast, the U.S. states east of the Rocky Mountains experienced and are still recovering from "Winter Storm Blair". Blair has brought strong winds, widespread ice & snowfall, and colder-than-average temperatures to over 60 million Americans across 30 states. The states of Kansas, Kentucky, and Virginia have declared states of emergency earlier this week, in addition to many states issuing winter storm warnings and advisories over the weekend due to Winter Storm Blair.
As Blair weans and the storm begins moving out into the work week, we continue to see overland delays and advisories as there are local closures, and adverse winter conditions. Air transit is experiencing delays and cancelations - which could impact tight timelines for any cargo traveling via air as the air traffic recovers from the 11,000+ flights affected over the weekend and into Monday.
Many folks in the southeast US are now bracing for the next storm, "Winter Storm Cora", another storm anticipated to develop Wednesday night into Thursday. This could mean traffic, closures, and delays especially in towns and states that do not regularly get snow or ice, "...such as Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, and Nashville". We will continue to monitor these storms, and our team will advise project teams should Winter Storm Blair or Winter Storm Cora create delays or reschedule appointments for items in transit or stored by our local warehouse partners.
While the states east of the Rockies deal with extreme cold and winter conditions, an extremely strong windstorm battered California Tuesday, January 7, and has led to the sparking of multiple fires in and around L.A. Tens of thousands of residents are presently under evacuation orders and California has declared a state of emergency. While the fires span thousands of acres, we presently do not see these affecting port operations or our local warehouse operations at this time, as many of our partners and carriers are located to the south and the east of the present affected areas.
However, as the fires continue to burn, we are keeping an eye on local traffic conditions and closures - as roads are likely to be congested due to evacuations and emergency preparations. Audit Project Managers will continue to advise any project teams that may be affected by these conditions and any plans that may need to be made.
Please reach out to our team should you have any questions or concerns about specific projects, warehouses, or items in transit.