Hurricane Irma: Georgia Ports To Close In Savannah, Brunswick

SAVANNAH, GA — With Hurricane Irma a dangerous category 4 storm, the Georgia Ports Authority says it will shut down operations at the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick Saturday, Sept. 9, through Tuesday, Sept. 12. The Savannah area is under a mandatory evacuation starting Saturday morning, while Atlanta hotels are filling up with fleeing Floridians.

Truck gates will close at 6 p.m. Friday in Savannah, while vessel operations will end at midnight. The Port of Savannah will not be accepting empty container returns Friday. At Colonel’s Island and Mayor’s Point terminals in Brunswick, gates will close at 5 p.m. Friday. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

“The safety of our employees and partners in the maritime community is our highest concern,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch in a news release. “We encourage GPA staff and our neighbors to heed Governor Deal’s warning and evacuate ahead of the storm.”

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To help ease highway congestion, Georgia DOT will suspend construction lane closures on interstates and secondary routes south of I-20 this weekend. The storm is blamed for at least 11 deaths so far and was following a path that may have dire implications for Florida, coastal Georgia and the Carolinas.

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Chatham County, Georgia's most populous coastal county that includes Savannah, emergency management director Dennis Jones warned Irma could bring 15 feet of storm surge and force floodwaters up the Savannah and Ogechee Rivers, potentially swamping 60 percent of the county.

The 30 counties under a state of emergency are Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Brantley, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Echols, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Glynn, Jenkins, Jeff Davis, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, Pierce, Screven, Tattnall, Toombs, Treutlen, Wayne and Ware.

Normally I-16 carries traffic in both directions between Macon and Savannah, but on Saturday at 8 a.m., the drop gate barricades will be lowered to keep traffic off the interstate that would be headed to areas under a mandatory evacuation.

“Our terminals in Savannah and Brunswick play a vital role in customer supply lines,” Lynch said. “After the hurricane passes, we are committed to assessing any damage and getting our ports back up and running as quickly as possible.”

Image: Ed Hart via Flickr Commons