Diverted Containers Due to Sandy

As with any natural disaster, Superstorm Sandy has greatly affected the shipping industry. This is since so many aspects of transportation are needed as well as warehousing and general inventory management to keep a clean supply chain. In preparation for Sandy, most shipping lines began to divert their ships from New York to other ports like Norfolk and further down the coast so they would not be a part of the severe weather. Those international shipping containers that were already moving were moved to other ports as well. This would include diversions of shipping containers sent by mini land bridge as well as containers that would be trucking from rail yards or hub cities. This all with the intent that the storm would end and the containers would be brought in to their warehouses. Obviously no one knew just how severe the weather would be and no one could predict the incredible devastation to the roads and rails as well as power outages and other hindrances to the supply chain. That is why receiving an instant freight quote helps move this process along faster.  

Some diverted containers were moved to southern ports with the expectation that they would eventually rail north. Again, no one could predict that the rails would be affected as much as they were and that the port of New York would be closed for a week after with no power. Warehousing was also a non-issue. Once the containers were moved north, there would be plenty of choices for storage, but there are not. Most companies like Global Forwarding had to come up with alternative plans to circumvent the power outages and rail and road closures. As we approach two weeks after Superstorm Sandy, we are finally starting to see some of the shipping industry come back to life. Many of the roads have been made accessible and even some of the rails can be used to get the cargo moving again despite the blizzards in West Virginia. Slowly we will be able to move the containers in and get back to some kind of normalcy after Sandy.