Port Canaveral Hurricane Matthew damage may reach $7 million

Port Canaveral sustained as much as $7 million in damage from Hurricane Matthew, port Chief Executive Officer John Murray estimates.

Bu the damage potentially could have been much worse, had the storm been a little closer to shore when it passed Brevard County. Additionally, the port was able to reopen quickly after the storm passed, avoiding a significant loss in cruise business.

Initial estimates show that the port has $2 million to $3 million in damage related to buildings, including roof damage on warehouse buildings and leaks at its cruise terminals.

The overall damage could increase to $5 million to $7 million, depending on how extensive damage is to port roads and how much dredging work might be needed in the port's channel areas.

Murray said more detailed figures should be available later this week.

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Murray said the port will be seeking assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help in reimbursement for the projects to repair storm damage.

Hurricane Matthew passed east of Brevard on a Friday morning, Oct. 7, and Port Canaveral was able to reopen by the next afternoon.

"Everybody hit the deck running Saturday morning" to work on structural repairs so the port could reopen, Murray said. "We had a great team effort. It was a great effort by everyone to get it up and running."

While the port was closed, Murray said, it lost two scheduled sailings by Port Canaveral-based ships: three-day sailings by the Disney Dream and the Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas. It also lost a scheduled port-of-call stop by the Disney Magic.

But that lost business was offset somewhat by three other cruise ships making unscheduled port-of-call stops at Port Canaveral when they were unable to make stops at other ports on their original itineraries, Murray said.

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Murray said the port provided 80,000 square feet of space in the new Port Canaveral Logistics Center in Titusville to the American Red Cross as a staging area to store relief supplies to help Floridians who needed assistance in the aftermath of the storm.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday. com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54