Michael update: Interstate 10 is open; Georgia crops are hard-hit

Recent developments in the post-Michael cleanup:

• Two days after Hurricane Michael roared ashore in Florida, there is good news for truckers. Interstate 10 is completely open in Florida, according to this report and a tweet from Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

• There has been significant damage to Georgia crops, possibly setting up a downturn in trucking demand for agricultural products. Given that little of it had been  harvested, the timing of the storm is being seen as the “worst possible time” for farmers. This news report refers to it as “total devastation.”

• A spur of the Colonial Pipeline has been closed. Line 17, which moves products into terminals in the Georgia cities of Americus, Albany and Bainbridge, is closed. But the main spur, which takes oil products from the Gulf of Mexico through the southeast and mid-Atlantic, was not affected by the storm.

• Power outages are being rapidly repaired in Florida and Georgia, according to poweroutage.us. The number of outages in Florida was less than 300,000 at approximately 7:30 a.m. this morning. In Georgia, it was about 170,000. Those are both down significantly from the levels of the prior day, when they were above 200,000 in Georgia and 300,000 in Florida. But both Virginia and North Carolina are straddling 500,000 outages.