Coal moving again in the South as rivers, railroads reopen

Washington (Platts)--7Sep2005

Coal was moving in and out of the South Tuesday after coming to a halt when
Hurricane Katrina roared though the area just over a week ago.

The US Coast Guard said cutters and small boats were working to repair missing
or damaged navigational aids between Florida and Louisiana.

The Lower Mississippi River was open to vessel traffic, but with a draft
limitation of 39 feet and limited to daytime travel. Only the Port of
Gulfport, Miss., remained closed to all traffic. Pascagoula, Miss., was open
to vessels with 12-foot draft or less, while Pensacola, Fla., and
Destin/Panama City, Fla., were open to vessels with a 31-foot draft or less.

The Alabama State Port Authority reopened on Saturday with the Mobile Ship
Channel open to vessels with drafts up to 43 feet to the 20-mil-ton/year
McDuffie Coal Terminal. Spokeswoman Judith Adams said the port hopes to have
its normal draft of 45 feet at McDuffie within a few weeks.

The remainder of the Mobile harbor was open to its normal 40-foot draft and
the Theodore ship channel was open to 37-foot draft.

Currently, traffic in Mobile is limited to one-way transit during daylight
hours. Two-way traffic and night navigation will be allowed once additional
aids to navigation are installed, Adams said.

"We resumed operations on Saturday and there were only six or seven ships out
on the bar," Adams told Platts Coal Trader Tuesday. Of the two ships waiting
to be unloaded, she said one coal ship was expected to enter McDuffie
Wednesday morning and the other on Friday morning.

She also said that Canadian National Railway, BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern
Railroad, Kansas City Southern Railroad and CSX Corp. had all resumed service
to the port by Tuesday afternoon.

Norfolk Southern said Tuesday it was making progress toward restoration of
service into the New Orleans area with most of its efforts focused on repair
to the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge and lines south of the bridge into New
Orleans. Several areas of track south of the lake remained under water and an
embargo of traffic to and from points south of Hattiesburg, Miss., remained in
effect. 

Canadian National Railway said local traffic to and from New Orleans remained
under embargo, as was local traffic to and from Burnside, Helvetia, Convent,
Remy, Reserve, Gramercy, Garyville, St. Rose, Norco and Destrehan, La.

The route between Jackson, Miss., and New Orleans, via Hammond, La., and Baton
Rouge, La., was in service, and interchange service has been reestablished
with BNSF and UP at CN's Mays Yard and CSX in Mobile. 

CN said work continued on the direct route between Hammond and New Orleans,
and was expected to be back in service by mid-September. CN's embargo has been
lifted at all other stations, including Mobile and Bogalusa, La. 

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