Preparing for Lee

 Hurricane Lee is making its way up the United States eastern seaboard heading directly for southwestern Nova Scotia. By the time it gets here it may be downgraded slightly to a Tropical Storm or Post Tropical storm, but it will still be acccompanied by very high winds, very heavy rain and a storm surge. Highest winds as usual will be on the western side of the track, which would be the Bay of Fundy and southern New Brunswick. However Halifax will not be completely spared, and preparations were well underway today (September 15) to secure ships and boats that will remain in port, and hasten the departure of others for sea.

The heavy load ship GPO Emerald, which arrived August 22, and has been in number one anchorage since September 8, moved alongside the IEL dock in Woodside yesterday. It is the only large ship to remain in port and may require tugs to stay alongside if its lines threaten to part.

The corvette Sackville moved to HMC Dockyard at some point today where it will be sheltered, but also where there are sufficient personel to monitor conditions and lines. (Its lines parted during Hurricane Juan in 2003 and it sank an adjacent luxury yacht.)

Numerous small craft were sent to the shelter of Mill Cove in Bedford Basin. Among them: pilot boats Scotia Pilot and APA No.20, harbour tour boats Silva, Harbour Queen I and Kawartha Spirit, Eagle Beach Construction vessels including Eagle Fury, Eagle Leader and their workboats and floats.

Several pleasure craft were also anchored in the Cove. When Hurricane Juan tracked directly through Halifax Harbour in 2003 it took the harbour tour boat Mar II from its berth in Halifax and cast it up on shore at Dook's Dock (now McAsphalt) in Eastern Passage. The lone crew member on board was helpless and could only ride it out.

All remaining commercial shipping had sailed by 2000 hrs September 15 and there are no pilot orders for arrivals (or departures) for tomorrow when Lee is expected to make landfall. The last ship to sail was ZIM Iberia which followed the cruise ship Zaandam which however gave a destination of Halifax again on September 16. Normally it would be headed for Sydney, but Lee is expected to track in that direction.

The chaos that ensued in 2003, when large ships were allowed to remain in port during Hurricane Juan, will not be repeated but little can be done about flooding along the waterfront due to storm surge. Flooding on shore and power outages could limit port activity for a time.

When Saufi Tabuk's lines parted during Hurricane Juan, it was blown across the camber and struck the Albert Oldendorff damaging containers on deck and the ships themselves. (Both ships were carrying National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia containers.)

Most ships are safer at sea where they can steam well away from the storm track given the advance warnings now available, and can miss the worst conditions. 

With power failures anticipated Shipfax may be off line during the next few days.

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