Florida power outages approach 3.4 million after Hurricane Milton

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Nearly 3.4 million outages have been reported in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a powerful Category 3 hurricane near Sarasota, Florida, south of the important fertilizer hub of Tampa.

Milton may have caused more damage had it passed over Tampa, according to CoreLogic, an insurance data company.

RAIL UPDATE
Railroad company CSX said it has relocated all of its locomotives and cars from low-lying areas in Tampa and rerouted them.

CSX operations will continue in and out of Waycross from the north, east and west directions. It will continue operating into and out of the intermodal ramps at Jacksonville, Florida.

On 8 October, CSX said it had taken the following steps.

• Closed the Central Florida ILC intermodal gate.
• Closed the Tampa, FL intermodal gate.
• Closed the TRANSFLO terminals at Tampa, Tampa Port and Sanford.

Another railroad company, Norfolk Southern, has not updated its notice from 7 October, when it said it was monitoring and preparing for Hurricane Milton.

FLORIDA PORTS REMAIN CLOSED
Many ports in Florida have maintained their Zulu port conditions, which means they are closed to inbound and outbound vessels.

The following table summarizes the conditions among the major ports in Florida.

Port	Status	Condition
Port of Pensacola	Open	Normal
Port Panama City	Open	Draft restrictions
Port St Joe	Open	Normal
Port Tampa Bay	Closed	Zulu
SeaPort Manatee	Closed	Zulu
PortMiami	Open	Yankee
Port Everglades	Open	Yankee
Port of Palm Beach	Closed	Zulu
Fort Pierce	Closed	Zulu
Port Canaveral	Closed	Zulu
Jaxport	Closed	Zulu
Port of Fernandina	Closed	Zulu

Source: US Coast Guard.

IMPACT ON FERTILIZERS, PHOSPHATES, CHEMS
For chemicals, there is some epoxy resin, phenolic resin and unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) production in Lakeland and Kathleen, Florida.

Milton will make landfall far from Pensacola, Florida, which has plants that make nylon and thermoset resins.

Tampa is an important hub for the US fertilizer industry, hosting corporate offices, trading, product storage, shipping and other logistical operations.

Fertilizer producer Mosaic has its headquarters in Tampa. The company has not issued any statements regarding its corporate operations.

A source at the fertilizer company Yara said it was shutting down its Tampa offices to comply with the evacuation orders.

Near Tampa is Florida’s phosphate mining operations in Bone Valley, which covers parts of Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee and Polk counties.

In all, Florida has 27 phosphate mines, of which nine are active, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Canadian fertilizer producer Nutrien has yet to restart its White Springs phosphate operations following Helene, an earlier hurricane that made landfall farther north in Florida’s Big Bend region.

On 30 September, Mosaic said its Riverview operations were off line following water intrusion from a storm surge caused by Hurricane Helene.

POSSIBLE DAMAGE
Hurricane Milton could be extremely destructive because of its winds, rainfall and storm surge.

It will pass over the following metropolitan statistical areas.

Region	Population
Tampa	3,342,963
Orlando	2,817,933
Jacksonville	1,713,240
Sarasota	910,108

Source: US Census Bureau

CoreLogic, the insurance data company, said Milton’s shift to the south of Tampa could limit the magnitude of insured losses.

CHEMS AND RECONSTRUCTION
For hurricanes in general, reconstruction can translate into increased demand for many chemicals and polymers.

The white pigment titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used in paints.

Solvents used in paints and coatings include butyl acetate (butac), butyl acrylate (butyl-A), ethyl acetate (etac), glycol ethers, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and isopropanol (IPA).

Blends of aliphatic and aromatic solvents are also used to make paints and coatings.

For polymers, expandable polystyrene (EPS) and polyurethane (PU) foam are used in insulation.

PUs are made of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and polyols.

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is used in pipes. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used to make cladding, window frames, wires and cables, flooring and roofing membranes.

Unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs) are used to make coatings and composites.

Vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) is used to make paints and adhesives.