Port Fourchon opens on generator power
07:06 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Bill Capo / Eyewitness News
A steady stream of trucks rolled into Port Fourchon Wednesday, carrying the badly needed supplies for offshore energy platforms.
Video: Watch the Story "(They’re) bringing the widgets and gadgets needed to open the fields back up,” said Ted Falgout, Port Fourchon’s Executive Director. “The vessels are back down in the port, they're loading up, getting back offshore."
Hurricane Ike's six-foot storm surge swamped parts of Port Fourchon, but it re-opened in just two days.
"An indication of how much water is how high the debris gets on the fence line, so in this case it is higher than me, yes," said Chief Jon Callais of the Port Fourchon Harbor Police.
"We were able to get down here on Sunday at noon, our people were here,” said Daniel LaFont of C-Port. “And then Monday moring at six o'clock we were open for business."
Utility crews are swarming across Port Fourchon, but it could be October first before power is restored. However, companies here are operating using generators, because damage to other ports makes Fourchon busier than ever.
"Because of Ike's impact on the western Gulf, we are having to accommodate much of the activity that was going on in Galveston, in Cameron, in that area now has moved to Fourchon,” said Falgout.
The federal Minerals Management Service reports oil output form the Gulf of Mexico right now is just 3% of normal, natural gas just 16% f what it was before the hurricanes. But oil company executives tell Port Fourchon officials that they're trying to get operations in the Gulf restarted as soon as possible.
The race is to get the oil flowing in pipes that pass through Port Fourchon to refineries across much of America before shortages affect consumers at gas pumps.
"Luckily Loop is back on now, that's over 1.3 million barrels a day that is coming back into this country that was shut down for over ten days for this two storm event,” Falgout pointed out.
In a rare signt, a wild, hungry coyote venturing out in daylight to search for food on what used to be Port Fourchon's beach. The severe erosion is prompting port leaders to ask Washington for emergency help to repair the damage before the next hurricane. "Our seawall has been decimated, now we sit out there very vulnerable if we get another storm,” Ted Falgout concluded
