Georgia port of Savannah officials had thought they would miss getting brushed by much of the remnants of Hurricane Florence.
That view shifted some on Wednesday.
It “looks like we may have a little bit more impact than we thought initially,” Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said.
Still, for the local operations “we think this will be more of a rain event and a tropical depression versus a hurricane.”
The port, an important economic engine for the state, remained in operation Wednesday. Lynch said he expected it to remain so through Friday.
“We are still working vessels, and vessels are still arriving,” he said.
But officials were waiting to see if the U.S. Coast Guard halts Savannah River cargo ship traffic, something that could happen as early as Thursday morning, Lynch said.
The hope is to avoid having ships in port if a tough storm strikes.
Lynch said for now the chances of hurricane-force winds hitting Savannah are “extremely low,” and he said he isn’t expecting a significant storm surge.
“We are still not in the center of this thing like northern South Carolina and North Carolina.”
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