The Port of New York and New Jersey remained closed late Wednesday as the aircraft carrier George Washington arrived at the harbor.
Lt. Dean Jones, chief of public affairs, for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard said the Port of New York was closed Tuesday to facilitate the movement of ferries and other watercraft being used to evacuate people from lower Manhattan and to bring rescue workers to the scene of the devastation at the World Trade Center. Jones said the Coast Guard has been given authority to look at security on a port-by-port basis and determine what sort of precautions should be put into place. The Navy on Tuesday dispatched the aircraft carrier to New York Harbor, and other vessels were deployed off the East Coast.
Officials from the Port Authority, Coast Guard and Customs met Wednesday morning but failed to determine when the port would be reopened. Richard Larrabee, director of port commerce for the port authority, said before the meeting that "[w]e are focused on getting back to normal operations as soon as possible. I think we are talking about days, not weeks.
Ships arriving in the port supply the region with a number of vital commodities. For example, Larrabee said the TOSCO refinery in New Jersey "provides a high percentage of gasoline and jet fuel for this area."
Brian Maher, the chief executive of Maher Terminals, said that he attended the meeting, but still had not received any indication as to when the port will reopen or why the port remains closed.
"I have no idea, but hopefully there are people who know things that we don't know," he added. "I hope they have a good reason." Maher normally employs about 1,000 workers at its terminal in Port Elizabeth, but he said only a "very short list" of employees that his company had provided to Customs and the police were being allowed on the terminal. Ships that had completed discharging their cargo were being allowed to leave the port, but arriving ships were not being allowed to dock and ships that were tied up could not be worked.
Maher said some of his staff had lost relatives in the attack on the World Trade Center. The Coast Guard established several safety zones in New York Harbor, around the George Washington and Triborough Bridges; from Constable Hook, Bayonne to St. George on Staten Island; and around the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
Four carriers have asked and received permission to discharge cargo in Baltimore that would normally be handled in the Port of New York and New Jersey, according to Judi Scioli, general manager for communications at the Maryland Port Administration. "This is a temporary situation, and we will expedite this cargo until normal operations resume at our neighbor port," the port said in a statement. Scioli said "we are feeling very sad and waiting for word about the people we know who had offices in New York."
Like the Port of New York and New Jersey, the MPA had offices at the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center at Baltimore, which is owned and managed by the Maryland Port Administration, is closed to visitors. The building has been secured and is open to current tenants on a limited basis.
Crowley American Transport said it diverted its containership Sea Tiger to the Port of Philadelphia after the Port of New York was closed.
The line said that under the existing force majeure conditions, all New York cargo on board the vessel is being discharged at Philadelphia for onforwarding.
The Sea Tiger will then proceed to Norfolk and resume its normal East Coast Inter-Americas port rotation.
