The Port of Charleston went back to normal operations Tuesday, a day after Tropical Storm Irma’s wind and rain led the State Ports Authority to close it Monday afternoon, The Post and Courier reported.
The region’s biggest manufacturers were following close behind. Many had shut down days before the storm so workers could prepare or leave, and they reported little or no damage.
“There was no damage of any kind, just minor cleanup from the storm,” SPA spokeswoman Erin Dhand told the newspaper.
High water, not high wind
Irma had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached the Lowcountry. Its biggest local effect was water.
The tide in Charleston Harbor peaked at 9.92 feet above mean lower low water at 1:18 p.m. Monday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s downtown gauge. The Post and Courier reported that it was the third highest on record. National Weather Service forecasters said the pressure difference between Irma and high pressure to the north kept strong onshore winds blowing.
Across South Carolina, there were more than 140,000 power outages Monday, with the largest numbers in Charleston, Beaufort, Berkeley, Lexington and Richland counties, Gov. Henry McMaster’s office said. Twenty-five county governments closed for the day.
On Tuesday at 9:15 a.m., McMaster lifted the evacuation orders he had issued Friday for eight barrier islands in Beaufort, Colleton and Jasper counties, including Hilton Head Island and Edisto Beach. Local officials kept limits on returning to some islands, including Edisto Beach.
How the port rode it out
The ports authority had planned for a glancing blow. In an advisory Sunday, it said container gates would open at 6 a.m. Monday and noted that no ships were scheduled to be worked that day.
By Monday morning, high winds had closed all of the authority’s empty-container yards, though the North Charleston and Wando Welch terminals were still taking import and export cargo, according to an SPA advisory. The authority shut the port that afternoon.
The storm also scrambled the authority’s calendar. Last week it postponed its annual State of the Port luncheon, where CEO Jim Newsome had been scheduled to speak Monday, and moved the South Carolina International Trade Conference, planned for this week at the Gaillard Center, to Oct. 30 through Nov. 1. A groundbreaking for the authority’s new headquarters at Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant was also put off, The Post and Courier reported.
The authority’s attention now turns to a record visitor. Shipping line CMA CGM said its Theodore Roosevelt, the largest container ship to call on the East Coast, is scheduled to dock at Wando Welch on Thursday, the newspaper reported. The ship can carry 14,855 cargo boxes. Its Charleston call, first planned for Sept. 1, has been pushed back three times by weather and a scheduling conflict.
Factories restart
Boeing Co. suspended work at its 787 Dreamliner campus in North Charleston on Saturday. It flew finished planes to safe locations or moved them indoors, and spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the site came through without damage, according to The Post and Courier.
Volvo Cars stopped construction of its $500 million plant near Ridgeville on Friday and inspected the Berkeley County site Tuesday morning. Spokeswoman Stephanie Mangini said there was no damage and that construction and equipment installation would resume Wednesday. The plant is scheduled to build its first S60 sedans by next summer.
Mercedes-Benz Vans halted its North Charleston operations Friday afternoon. Spokeswoman Alyssa Bean said Monday’s weather had only minor effects. Construction work on the company’s $500 million Sprinter van plant at Palmetto Commerce Park was to resume Tuesday, with all remaining operations back by Wednesday.
Nucor Corp.’s steel mill in Huger wound down Friday night to give workers time to evacuate. Giff Daughtridge, the mill’s vice president and general manager, said conditions there stayed fine and steelmaking resumed Tuesday morning.
BP’s petrochemical plant on the Cooper River in Berkeley County, which evacuated all nonessential workers over the weekend, was also operating normally, a company spokesman said.
Ahead of other ports
Charleston got back to work faster than some of its Southeast competitors. The Georgia Ports Authority was still assessing damage at its Savannah and Brunswick terminals Tuesday morning and expected normal operations Wednesday, The Post and Courier reported. Florida ports were still surveying damage.
Cruise passengers had already lost a trip. Carnival canceled the Ecstasy’s Saturday departure from Charleston to the Bahamas and kept the ship at sea without passengers until the storm passed, offering full refunds.
