Katrina – The shame of it all

Katrina has been a catastrophe on many levels and has brought us salutary lessons in crisis management. The US Gulf Coast ports are important for the export of grains, about 50% of which goes down the Mississippi, and the imports of fruits, vegetables, steel, crude oil and products. They are out of action.

The implications of the disaster at this stage are still highly speculative. Containers and general cargo can easily be diverted to other ports with many shipping lines declaring Force Majeure, no longer accepting cargoes for the stricken ports and discharging cargoes at other ports such as Houston, but then it is up to the importer to worry about getting his cargo to its final destination.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are being as helpful as usual. On their website they say that: “Requests for diversion should be submitted in the form of an updated CBP Form 3171 to the Port Director in the port of discharge as soon as the decision to divert the vessel is made. CBP officers in the port of discharge must complete screening for security purposes before the vessel will be allowed to discharge.” What this means is that it is not that easy to divert cargo that has already had its documentation sent to CBP – all part of the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security to be helpful (sic) .On the landside, railroads are going to need to divert around the Gulf Coast area for a significant period of time, which will result in a shortage of railroad cars and longer transit time for trains hauling merchandise away from other ports, particularly on the West Coast. It will cause problems for the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland – just in time for the peak season.

The shame of it all is that we are living in an environment of bad planning. The US has spent billions on planning for a major security crisis, creating a police state mentality and centralisation to the extreme and this was very apparent in the wake of Katrina. There was no planning, no coordination and no civil response in evidence for nearly four days. In this environment it is difficult to respond to the traffic needs and routing decisions that are necessary to keep the system working. The US Administration must bear the shame of its politicised policies and their consequences.