zoomImage Courtesy: DVIDSHUB, USCG, Petty Officer 3rd Class Johanna Strickland

The Port of Corpus Christi is still closed for vessel traffic in the Hurricane Harvey aftermath as the entrance to the port has been obstructed following the grounding of a drillship.

Namely, a laid-up drillship broke free from its mooring, sank a tugboat assigned to hold it in place and beached in the ship channel of the port, local media report.

“Port is closed until it is moved. Salvage company T&T has been appointed to handle removal,” GAC USA told World Maritime News.

The drillship has been identified as the 1979-built Paragon DPDS1, owned by Paragon Offshore.

There have been no injuries reported from the incident to the vessels’ crews.

Activities are said to be underway to remove the drillship.

The port was closed on Thursday, as the hurricane moved toward the middle Texas.

Port personnel is continuing to assess hurricane impacts with initial assessments indicating light to moderate damage and debris, the port authority said in its latest update.

Power has been restored to several facilities and numerous others are still on emergency power including the Port of Corpus Christi Authority’s (POCCA) EOC, Security Command Center and Harbor Master’s Office. PCCA informed it was working toward achieving normal operation by September 4.

“The Port of Corpus Christi continues coordinating with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Coast Guard to expedite channel surveys. Until such time, the USCG maintains Condition Zulu for all Port Corpus Christi channels including the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and La Quinta Ship Channel. Current weather related to the remains of Hurricane Harvey is causing challenges to the survey operations,” the update reads.

The center of Harvey, now downgraded to a tropical storm, is emerging off the middle Texas coast, and it is expected to remain just offshore through Tuesday, August 29.

Harvey is expected to produce additional rainfall accumulations of 15-25 inches through Friday over the upper Texas coast and into southwestern Louisiana. The record breaking rainfall from the storm has caused flooding across Texas.

The storm is expected to work its way up the Texas coast on Tuesday and Wednesday.

World Maritime News Staff