Savannah River reopens to commercial traffic

The Georgia Ports Authority said the Port of Savannah will be extra busy moving containers in the next week as shippers seek to retrieve and deliver a backlog of cargo resulting from hurricane associated closures.    The Port of Savannah began operating at full capacity on Wednesday after the U.S. Coast Guard restored navigational buoys in the outer harbor to their proper locations after they had been moved by the force of Hurricane Matthew last week.
   The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said the Savannah River channel reopened for commercial traffic Wednesday morning and 11 vessels transited the channel by mid-afternoon, with nine of them docking at the Garden City Terminal and two at the Ocean Terminal.
   By the end of the day, the Garden City Terminal was moving almost 800 containers per hour.
   “Of all the ports affected by Hurricane Matthew, the Port of Savannah was hit the hardest,” U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Amy Beach, Marine Safety Unit Savannah Commander, said in a statement. “I know how vital the Port of Savannah is to the nation, and fully reopening the port was my top priority.”
   The GPA projected the Garden City Terminal processed more than 8,500 truck moves by the end of Wednesday and the number is expected to grow in the coming days.
   GPA Port Director Griff Lynch urged shuttle drivers to take advantage of Saturday gate hours this week.
   “During peak season, we understand this is a critical time for port users’ supply chain in the U.S. Southeast and Mid-West,” Lynch said. “Everyone involved did a phenomenal job bringing the port back to normal operations.”