The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Freeport's harbour was back to functioning normally within two days of Hurricane Dorian's passage, a shipping company executive has revealed.

Elbert Hepburn, president and chief executive of Elnet Maritime in Freeport, said he has been shipping items into Freeport and operating regularly within days of Dorian's passage. His company is heavily involved in the shipping of relief supplies the storm's victims.

"As far as tanker operations, they were stalled only for a day or two after Hurricane Dorian had passed, but they were right back up and running like it was before," Mr Hepburn said. "Persons are even now chartering vessels to come in to the port, just to show you how available the Freeport Harbour is right now.

"The Freeport Harbour Company was open two days after the storm. The port is operating back to normal. A shipment I had scheduled to come in on Saturday actually came in a day earlier, today, for example.

He added: "If there are any issues with shipping through the Freeport Harbour/Container Port, the issue is with the individual shipping company, not with the port itself."

Another shipping and logistics source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the only issue they knew of after the storm was the calibrating of gantry cranes for large containers. Yet they added that no major logistics issues or backlogs have been experienced by their firm or any other shipping company they know of.