With tropical storm Gordon expected to strengthen and make landfall as a hurricane Tuesday night, the Coast Guard and maritime industry moved to complete preparations along the north-central Gulf coast.
The Coast Guard set port condition Yankee for its New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., sectors, closing ports to inbound traffic greater than 500 gross tons. At 7 a.m. Tuesday the Coast Guard declared port condition Zulu for Mobile, essentially closing the port to vessel traffic, and followed suit in midafternoon for Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss.
With terminal and facilities preparations complete the Alabama State Port Authority sent non-essential personnel home so they could prepare for the storm.
“While it is uncertain this storm will reach hurricane status, we take these storms quite seriously,” said Jimmy Lyons, port authority director and CEO, in announcing the shutdown.
Operations ended before noon Tuesday as the Port of Mobile prepared for tropical storm Gordon. Ken Hocke photo.
“High winds and storm surge could impact equipment and operations if steps are not taken. Our personnel have been busy this morning tying down cranes and moving equipment either to higher ground or under cover. We’re about as prepared as we can be.”
Lyons said the port would reopen to operations as soon as the storm passes and preliminary assessments for any damage are completed, including a Coast Guard assessment of post-storm channel conditions and aids to navigation.
At 4 p.m. Tuesday, NHC forecasters reported Gordon had sustained winds around 70 mph, and was moving northwest to the north-central Gulf coast at 15 mph. Some additional strengthening is still possible, and
Gordon could become a hurricane before landfall occurs along the north-central Gulf Coast this evening.
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has activated its Hurricane Response Team to monitor offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf as they evacuate platforms and rigs in preparation for the storm. As of 11:30 a.m. central time Tuesday 54 production platforms had been evacuated, accounting for 7.86% of the 687 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, BSEE officials said.
One non-dynamically positioned drilling rig was evacuated, and one dynamically positioned mobile rig was moved away from the storm’s path. In all BSEE officials calculated 9.23% of Gulf oil production was shut-in as a precaution, and 9.06% of natural gas production.
