Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath—torrential rain and flooding—continue to cripple the Texas transportation industry. Throughout Houston and surrounding Texas counties, storm damage has displaced thousands, made highways and key transportation routes impassible, and interrupted truck, rail, sea, and air transport. With severe weather expected to continue through Thursday, it’s likely the transportation industry will feel the effects for weeks or even longer.

Presently, it’s too early to forecast when logistics operations could resume operations in Texas. Within the impacted areas, a return to ‘normal’ will be slowed by the need for damage inspection and possible repairs. In addition, once the floods recede, and infrastructure is assessed, transportation workers will have to deal with freight backlogs and an expected spike in truck spot rates.

With severe weather in the forecast through Thursday, the US Coast Guard has stated that vessel traffic at the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport, and Corpus Christi will only reopen once channels are deemed safe. The port of Brownsville, south of the storm zone, reopened Saturday morning.

Of the above mentioned ports, both Corpus Christi and Freeport cited light to medium damage; port Houston suspended all operations through both Monday and Tuesday, and continues to evaluate whether operations can be resumed safely on Wednesday; and port of Galveston reportedly escaped any significant damage.

Houston’s two major airports, Hobby and Bush Intercontinental, remain closed indefinitely because of localized flooding. Additionally, railroads serving the area—operated by BSNF, Union Pacific, and Kansas City Southern—expect service disruptions to continue for several days.

Deringer will continue to monitor the situation in Texas and provide updates as conditions warrant. Please send an email to Deringer’s Marketing Department with any questions.