New Orleans to Survey
Damage to Its Port

The port of New Orleans remained closed to ocean shipping for the third consecutive day yesterday, awaiting an assessment of damages caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The Coast Guard said it opened the lower Mississippi River to tug and barge traffic yesterday after commercial tugs demonstrated that the river was passable for shallow-draft vessels. Resumption of traffic of big ocean-bound ships in and out of New Orleans must await depth surveys of the river bottom to search for any obstructions and damage left by the hurricane.

Doug Garman, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps hasn't begun surveying channels in the New Orleans area. "We are deploying our resources to the more immediate problem in New Orleans, which is fighting the flood," he said. "It will be several days at the least before we can begin any type of navigational surveying."

However, initial reports of visual inspections identified widespread silting in some channels as well as destruction of navigational buoys, Mr. Garman said. A Coast Guard spokeswoman said that several large vessels had run aground during Hurricane Katrina, including one bulk freighter that beached near downtown New Orleans. She said the ship was re-floated and didn't appear to be damaged or to be a navigational hazard.

The port, one of the busiest in the world, is a magnet for grain, iron, petroleum products and other bulk goods and represents the entryway to the extensive Mississippi River system.

The reopening of the lower Mississippi River to barge traffic was encouraging news to some maritime interests, who said that waterfront facilities remained closed by power failures and the inability of employees to staff the facilities.

"The boats and barges can move, but the places they intend to go such as grain elevators and loading docks are not operational," said Dan Mecklenborg, chief legal officer for Ingram Barge Co., a closely held barge operator in Nashville, Tenn. He expected it could be a week or more before operations are restored. "And even that may be optimistic."

Gary LaGrange, president of the port of New Orleans, said after landside and waterside tours of port facilities Monday afternoon and yesterday morning that the port's newest container shipping terminal was largely intact, although about 100 20-foot and 40-foot long shipping containers were strewn about the terminal. "It looked like Lego building blocks on a child's playroom floor," he said.

Mr. LaGrange said freight-storing sheds at eight other terminals had sides, roofs, skylights and doors damaged by the storm. The port's cruise-ship terminal, under construction, is intact except for one area, where a runaway dry dock collided with it during the storm, he said.

Just as serious as the damage are prospects that electricity won't be restored in parts of the city for weeks. "That means cranes can't work, cruise-ship terminals can't operate and people don't work," Mr. LaGrange said. "You lose market share to other ports when ships are diverted."

Hurricane Katrina also damaged railroad tracks near New Orleans on one of the nation's transcontinental freight routes. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., a Fort Worth, Texas, railroad operator, said a large floating object hit its railroad bridge in Morgan City, La., during the storm, knocking the bridge out of alignment. The railroad said it expects to reopen the bridge tomorrow night.

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