Houston after Harvey

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By Dan Shryock

Hurricane Harvey dumped 50 inches (127 cm) of rain on Houston, Texas, in late August but the catastrophic storm, which will cost an estimated $160 billion, did not dampen the regional coffee industry. Reports from Port Houston, the local port authority, and area coffee warehouses indicate the import supply chain slowed but there was no significant damage to inventory.

Flooding swept across much of Houston and Harris County after the Category 4 hurricane made landfall near Rockport on Aug. 25. The storm stalled before going back to sea. It then made a second landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, five days later.

Harvey’s slow movement resulted in record-setting rainfall. Harris County flood control district officials estimated one trillion gallons of water fell in four days.

Port Houston shut down, in part, because roads throughout the metro area became impassible for trucks hauling cargo. Port employees and longshoremen were not only preoccupied with protecting their own families and homes, they couldn’t get to work due to road closures.

Bill Diehl, executive director of the Greater Houston Coffee Association, said that “unlike a normal hurricane with the storm surge doing damage, this was a rain event. The issue here was the workers. People were flooded [out of their homes]. The [coffee] industry side has fared well but the personnel side has taken the hit. It will take a while to recover.”

Once the rains stopped and floodwaters began to subside, cargo started to move.

“We opened again [on Sept. 1] and we were expecting a huge surge of trucks coming in,” said Ricardo Arias, trade development manager for Port Houston. “But because so many trucking companies lost trucks or had no drivers, we did not receive as many trucks as we were expecting.”

Within a week, the port’s container backlog was nearly cleared. Both Diehl and Arias said no storm or water damage was reported to any containers at the port.

“I came back to the building and went up to the roof because I wanted to get a look at the docks but I didn’t see any debris,” Diehl said. “The water simply flushed out.”

Port Houston

There are two container terminals at Port Houston ― Barbours Cut and Bayport. Both are located east of Houston off Galveston Bay. An estimated 2.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalents) passed through the port in 2016 and about 142,000 TEUs, or 6.5 %, are coffee imports. Dock support is provided by the International Longshoremen’s Association.

In all, there are 139 terminals at the port but only eight are run by Port Houston. The others are operated by major corporations. Of Port Houston’s eight terminals, four are designated for general cargo, two are for containers, one is for bulk minerals and another is for bulk grain.

While most of the hurricane-related flooding occurred in central and western Houston, Port Houston drained well. Historically, the port has held its own against major storms, Arias said.

“When we got a direct hit with [Hurricane] Ike [in 2008], we were hit on Saturday and we were operational by Wednesday. We sustained only minimal damage,” he said. “But the rain from Harvey was awesome and Houston is as flat as a pancake. People are personally impacted [by this storm] but on the infrastructure side, we’re minimally impacted.”

Getting back to work

“[Local public services are] not used to draining 50 inches of water in Houston,” Diehl said a week after the port reopened. “They’re dealing with getting the highways back to normal. On the port side, trucks are moving.”

Port operations resumed one day before the start of the Labor Day weekend, a major three-day American holiday weekend set aside to honor the United States labor movement and the contributions of American workers. More than 120 crews from the International Longshoremen’s Association chose to work through the holiday to get operations back to normal. By that Wednesday, they serviced 14 container ships.

“Those guys were awesome. They did a fantastic job,” Arias said. “Like all Houstonians, they united and did what it took to make sure Houston got back on track and the port back in business. It’s an important holiday for labor unions and they honored the holiday by working in a time of need.”

Area coffee warehouses survived

Reports into the Houston coffee association indicate warehouses and roasteries escaped Hurricane Harvey’s wet wrath. One company, specialty roaster FreshBrew Coffee, reported extensive damage to one division of its operations.

“Our vending business had a problem in Beaumont,” said FreshBrew partner Robert Sakowitz. “Our plant is located next to the [Neches] river so we had very, very high water. We don’t have a dollar number yet but the number of vending machines out of commission is in the hundreds, and we had four or five trucks under water.”

FreshBrew Coffee operates both its private label/branded coffee roasting and vending divisions in Houston. About 15% of the vending operation is in Beaumont, about 90 miles to the east. The company’s Houston roasting and vending businesses were not damaged.

“The roasting plant had just gone through an SQF (Safe Quality Foods) audit,” said Sakowitz. “We were in good shape and ready for anything. But your #1 asset is your people. If your people have problems and complications, then they are your problems and complications.”

FreshBrew’s employees quickly got back to work despite storm and flooding damage at home and the company was among the first to be ready to make deliveries, Sakowitz said. “Our people did an incredible job. They were very conscientious.

You can’t imagine what Houston was like. People have no conception about what working together is like here. Houstonians are amazing.”

FreshBrew also delivered about 50,000 bottles of water and 5,000 snacks to Houston’s first responders, city hall and hospital staffs.

Other area coffee producers and warehouses contacted for this article reported no damage following Harvey’s rain.

“We were extremely lucky and experienced no damage because of the storm,” Janet Colley Morse, vice president, Dupuy Storage said a week after the rain stopped. “We have experienced delays due to fuel scarcity, road unavailability, and a shortage of drivers.  Our customers also have had trouble finding truckers. We are doing our very best to accommodate all our customers in the most efficient and effective way possible. We are well on our way to ‘normal.’”

“ACS [Atlantic Coffee Solutions] weathered the storm well compared to many areas of Houston,” said business development manager Steve Ferguson. “Like most other businesses in Houston, the entire operation was shut down for five days as people simply could not move around the city, and it was over a week before most of our people could make it to the site.

“The facility sustained no damage to buildings or equipment due to the storm,” he said. “We had some impact in the supply chain due to transit interruptions for approximately a week after the storm. We still have minor issues with employee availability as some people are taking care of personal matters in the aftermath.”