8/28/2012 11:40:00 AM
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ATA Advises Truckers to Take Precautions Ahead of Storm
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Cargo operations around New Orleans have ground to a halt as Tropical Storm Isaac moves in on the city, and American Trucking Associations urged truck drivers and motorists to take appropriate precautions ahead of the storm.
Isaac was near hurricane strength as of 11 a.m. Eastern Time Tuesday and forecasters expected it to make landfall near New Orleans by early Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
While not as big a storm as Katrina, which was a stronger Category 3 hurricane at landfall, Isaac is a large, slow-moving system that forecasters said could dump a foot or more of rain in the region.
“We advise all drivers, commercial and commuter alike, make good travel decisions,� ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement. “No trip, and no delivery, is worth putting yourself or others in harm’s way.�
FedEx Corp. suspended service in a Louisiana parish that is under mandatory evacuation orders and anticipated delays in air-freight service in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, Bloomberg reported.
UPS Inc. suspended pickups and drop-offs in more than 20 postal-delivery zones, and planes that were idled have been removed from the area, a company spokesman told Bloomberg.
The Port of New Orleans closed its operations for Tuesday and Wednesday. The port moves about 500 million tons of cargo a year and more than 6,000 vessels move through it annually, Fox Business News reported.
Freight railroads rerouted traffic from New Orleans, interchanging east-west cargoes in cities including Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., Bloomberg reported.
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