PORT OF AUCKLAND suspended several activities at 1900 local time last night as Tropical Cyclone Tam bore down on NZ’s North Island.
Emergency management authorities warned of the strongest gales 2017, with 100km/h winds to affect Auckland, Northland and the Coromandel, along with heavy rain in what was expected to be “very messy”.
Media reported more than 3,500 people in Northland homes were without power last night after severe winds toppled trees on to powerlines. A yacht was also reported to have sunk.
“We’re continuing to monitor the weather closely and are preparing for the arrival of a low-pressure system expected later tonight,” POAL said in a customary advisory. “We have made a few changes to our operational plan for the next 36 hours. Safety and protection of people and infrastructure are our priority.
“With the heavy weather (high winds) expected, Port of Auckland has made the decision to:
- Vessels: We’ll take all reasonable precautions.
- Container Terminal: Operations will pause for 36 hours, with a skeleton crew in place from Wednesday 1900.
- Multi-Cargo: We’ll continue to take all reasonable precautions. Operations will cease if our heavy weather protocol is triggered.
- Reefers: Monitoring will continue, with added safety measures in place.
Full Container Terminal operations are expected to resume at 0700 hours, Friday 18 April.
Nominated vessels’ last free days will be adjusted to reflect the operational changes as applicable.”
The disruption will further frustrate container lines which have been posting notifications of NZ port omissions and changed rotations for the past 10 days, thanks to congestion and last weekend’s closure of the Fergusson Container Terminal to implement a TOS update
The upgrade was completed successfully and normal operations resumed at 1500 hours, Sunday 13 April.
