Extreme weather hitting the United States on the back of a major port strike along the country’s eastern seaboard will likely disrupt shipping in the Virgin Islands in the coming weeks, but the territory will be able to handle the challenge, according to an industry leader.
“We will find a way through it: We always do,” said Chris Haycraft, managing director of Island Shipping and Trading, adding, “In a matter of weeks, everything will be back on schedule, but it’s certainly a disruption.”
The comments came as Florida and other southeastern states prepared to be pummelled by Hurricane Milton.
The ferocious weather system registered a rare Category Five rating on Monday and reduced to Category Four as it headed toward landfall near Tampa on the west coast of Florida yesterday.
Only 42 hurricanes in the Atlantic have been recorded at Milton’s strength.
The storm follows in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which left a trail of destruction as it hit Florida and North Carolina particularly badly late last month.
Dock strike
Mr. Haycraft said the recent hurricanes pose more of a problem to the territory than the dock strike that temporarily shut down ports on the US east and gulf coasts last week.
“I am far more concerned with the hurricanes than the strike,” he added.
Though some 47,000 members of the Longshoreman’s Association union took industrial action on Tuesday of last week, they returned to their jobs after three days of negotiations, agreeing to a new deadline of Jan. 15 to settle outstanding issues.
The work stoppage had threatened to severely interrupt the flow of many American exports in the run-up to the closely fought US presidential election on Nov. 6. As the first such strike since 1977, it was expected to cost the US economy up to $5 billion a day.
At the heart of the disagreement were the issues of pay and future automation of dock work.
A separate union on the US west coast had agreed a deal last year on such issues.