Hurricane Ida: What You Need to Know and the impact it potentially has

Early Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Ida strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane status, with winds of 111 to 129 mph, meteorologists at Freightwaves said. On Monday morning, Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm. However, this still has the ability to impact operations in affected areas, as well as making the already congested rail, even more congested.

According to Freightwaves Meteorologist Nick Austin, all of the U.S. Class I railroads have issued public service alerts that include rerouting, gate closures and a suspension in bringing equipment into the affected area. They are indicating a sharp drop-off this week in intermodal volume, rising intermodal tender rejection rates and continued increases in intermodal spot rates. In addition, hurricanes have the ability to damage class I railroads’ tracks and other infrastructure, which is highly disruptive until repairs are performed.

Shipments to and from Norfolk Southern’s New Orleans facility are already affected. NS says, “Customers with shipments arriving or departing from our New Orleans facility should expect delays of 24 hours. Norfolk Southern will provide updates as conditions change.”

Hurricane Ida has also impacted Kansas City Southern as they have had to suspend operations and interchanges from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, LA as well as Gulfport/Hattiesburg, MS because of the impact of Hurricane Ida. Terminal gates at the Port of Mobile, in Alabama, are closed Monday with operations expected to resume Tuesday.

We hope the impact of Hurricane Ida is minimal and not as destructive as projected. Contact us today if you’d like further updates.