Hurricanes hurt Carribean, Central American trade

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 1/1/1999

In late September, Hurricane Georges roared through the Caribbean, leaving hundreds dead and more than 160,000 people homeless. Businesses were destroyed and crops were devastated. Just a few weeks later, Hurricane Mitch--the most destructive storm in decades--left more than 15,000 people dead, thousands more missing, and millions homeless as floods and mudslides rampaged through Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Homes, buildings, roads, bridges, and farms literally were obliterated, destroying decades of economic progress in a few days.

The two hurricanes have had a significant impact on ocean shipping in the region. In Puerto Rico, all of the container cranes at the Port of San Juan were damaged--some so badly that they could not be repaired. Only two were workable in the days immediately following the storm. Ports in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica also suffered damage to both facilities and landside connections.

Those ports are bouncing back, says P. Elliot Burnside, president of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Crowley American Transport. "We were extremely fortunate ... people did a fantastic job with the recovery," he says. Companies like Crowley that depend mostly on roll-on/roll-off cargo in the Caribbean and therefore do not stack containers suffered minimal disruption, he notes. Although it will take some time to restore the island's industrial production and consumer purchasing to previous levels, by December, ships already were "bulging at the seams," Burnside says. "We [had] not only cargo involved in restoring the country to a normal state, but we also [had] the Christmas season's great surge of cargo."

Central America, meanwhile, is likely to feel the effects of Hurricane Mitch for decades to come. Although most port facilities suffered flooding and some damage initially, terminal operations are "pretty much back to normal," says Kim Gadegaard, Maersk Line's vice president for Latin American services. Inland infrastructure, housing, and agriculture were hardest hit, with many communities physically isolated, he says. Not surprisingly, relief shipments, building and construction materials, and heavy construction equipment are the major imports right now. All of the ocean carriers serving the region have agreed to carry relief cargoes at very low rates, Gadegaard notes.

The loss of major export crops will be painful for countries that depend on them for hard currency, but shipments of consumer and industrial goods such as textiles have not slowed as much as expected, Gadegaard observes. "I don't think it's going to be as bad as we initially thought. It certainly will take a while before the day-to-day situation returns to normal. ... But we shouldn't underestimate people's ability to overcome adversity."