Florida Ports Opening Post-Milton

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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--After the remnants of Hurricane Milton disintegrated in the waters of the Atlantic, the U.S. Coast Guard by Friday reopened some ports along the Gulf Coast but warned that restrictions on petroleum cargo remained in place.

Milton made landfall Wednesday on Florida's west coast as a Category 3 hurricane, with sustained winds of around 120 miles per hour. The storm ripped the roof off St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field, home to the Major League Baseball's (MLB) Rays, and brought as much as 8 feet of storm surge to Florida's eastern shores.

The storm made landfall as residents from Florida to the Carolinas were still picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene, which struck the U.S. mainland in late September.

Industrial Info's Disaster Impact Tracker showed that plants ranging from phosphate mines to pharmaceutical facilities had shuttered operations ahead of the storm. The Port of Tampa halted all traffic and closed its shipping channels after the Coast Guard set conditions to "Zulu," indicating a threat from gale-force winds.

By Friday, the Coast Guard said Key West, Port Everglades, Port Miami and the Miami River were open, and Tampa and Seaport Manatee were operating with restrictions.

"Vessel movements requiring federal pilotage are prohibited, including U.S. vessels over 1,600 gross tons and U.S. petroleum barges over 10,000 gross tons," the Coast Guard said.

Tampa handles about 17 million tons of refined petroleum products and natural gas each year for Florida. The state has no refineries of its own, leaving evacuees scrambling to find functioning service stations.

"All this terrible weather lately could cause regional prices to rise as drivers flock to the few open stations with gas," Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for travel club AAA, said Thursday. "But as roads are cleared and power is restored, stations will be able to be re-supplied, so any upward pressure on prices should be fleeting."

Retail gasoline prices saw only a minor spike due to the storm but remained below month-ago levels.

Unlike other storms this year, Milton largely spared the dense network of pipelines, refineries and production centers along the Gulf Coast and offshore. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, an offshore regulator, never activated its hurricane response team for Milton, though at least one company--Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California)--shut in some offshore production as the storm moved through the Gulf of Mexico.

With crews still picking up from Helene, particularly in areas south of the Carolinas, power remains a lingering concern. According to poweroutage.us, nearly 2.5 million people were without power due to recent storms, with the bulk of those concentrated in Florida as of Friday.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs through the end of November. Tropical Storm Leslie was spinning in the mid-Atlantic, though it posed no threat to the U.S. mainland.

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