Dear All,
We wanted to provide a status update on our Miami operations and staff. Most importantly, all of our staff members are safe. We had a number that had to evacuate from their homes but are otherwise safe. We also have had someone check on our building and they have confirmed the warehouse and office areas are just fine, with no damage noted. The building is, however, without power and water. Our local electricity provider has a website up that identifies our location and it appears there are 3,341 others in our immediate area that are without power. This is 3,341 out of 750,000 people in Miami-Dade county alone that are without power. We hope that given our close proximity to a fire station, police department and a couple of schools our power will be among those that are restored relatively quickly, however at this point there is no means for us to estimate the power or water restoration. We will keep you posted as we learn more.
Hurricane-related winds will continue to impact transport into Florida over the next couple of days
If you are wondering where your cargo might be ON ITS WAY to Miami, the diagram below indicates the eye of the hurricane and the hurricane or tropical storm level wind circumference. The entire yellow area has winds in excess of 35 MPH and guts of about ½ again as high. This means all road traffic into the state of Florida is impacted. Further, these was extensive damage throughout the Western side of the state as well as a decent amount damage in the Miami area. In fact, the Florida Keys area were devastated by over 3-4 meters of water over the land area that is probably only 2 meters above sea level. The priority for use of road systems will be for recovery and clean up over the next couple of days and that’s only AFTER it is safe and the roads cleared of wind-blown debris for traffic to be safe on the roads.
Florida geography will impact cargo deliveries and transit times for the immediate future
Florida is a long peninsula with Miami at the southern end. It is over 350 miles / 600 km from Jacksonville to Miami. As you can see from the roadmap below, there are only 2 north south options. This is I-95 along the eastern seaboard from Jacksonville to Miami and I-75 that starts in the middle of state and runs down the western side until Naples where it turns east. This lack of road capacity for north and south travel is going to have a big impact over the next couple of weeks. Over 6 MILLION people evacuated from various parts of Florida, including Miami and all the cities on the eastern and western side of the state. Once the storms have completely passed, all of the 6 MILLION people that left will be coming back, further clogging up the roads. The evacuations were done over a period of 3-4 days and the results were enormously long traffic jams and a lack of petrol along the way. We anticipate freight deliveries (LTL, FCL and even small package) to South Florida and Miami to be severely impacted at least through the end of this week with a continuing impact well into next week. What used to take 3-4 days could easily take 2-3x that for the next couple of weeks.
If your or your clients are in urgent need of transport from the USA and the cargo is in the Miami area already, just as soon as roads are cleared and the airport and seaport are accepting cargo we will be able to get the cargo out. If the cargo is located in another part of the USA, we HIGHLY recommend looking at alternative airlines that, while not direct flights, at least there are reliable transit times to the airport or the CFS consolidation station.
We are happy to look for options for you and to do our best to support you and your clients. While our warehouse / office might not be operational, almost all of our operational client service personnel are hard at work with full electronic capabilities taking care of our clients’ needs.
Thanks for your continued support and understanding as the area recovers back to normal operations.
Sincerely,
Sean K. Scarbrough