Monica Hernandez / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- Empty barges moored in the Mississippi River off Algiers are a sign of the impact high river levels are having on river traffic and, in turn, the economy.
Frank Morton says the barge fleet he operates is seeing a 30 percent increase in the number of moored barges because of slow-moving traffic on the mississippi river.
“In this businesses, force majeure as it’s called, so nobody's getting paid anything for it; it’s just sitting there, getting hit pretty good right now,” said Morton.
“They have nowhere to go. Until everything stabilizes, they have no place to go.”
Morton's company, Turn Services, loads, unloads and moors barges from all over the country here on the lower Mississippi. But river conditions have made that work much more challenging.
“What affects us tremendously is it takes so much longer to do everything safely,” said Morton. "If you don't do everything safely, this river right now is not forgiving whatsoever; it can cause property damage or worst of all personal injury or even death.”
Morton said so far, his company hasn't had to scale back hours, but that hasn't been easy. The Coast Guard closed the mighty Mississippi to river traffic yesterday at Natchez, Miss. But cargo is slowly moving again today with heavy restrictions.
“If you've got the pipeline going at any level, it's better than having it shut off,” said Morton.
Cutting off that pipeline could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars every day. Meanwhile, high river levels have forced some freight terminals to stopped operations.
Mitch Smith, with the Port of South Louisiana, says that's affecting industries dealing with grain, iron and timber. But for now, he believes, those impacted will weather the challenge. “It's slowed up a bit, but cargo is moving.”
“With river stages being so high, sometimes it's hard to get barges and ships into docks safely,” said Smith.
“This is an industry that really prides itself on doing what it’s supposed to do and accomplishing difficult things whatever the times are,” said Morton.
With the new restrictions, tows can only pass one at a time and must have at least 1,200 feet between them. An official with the New Orleans-Baton Rouge River Pilots believes high river levels have pushed river traffic down by a third
