Crowley Braces for Hurricane Floyd

1999-09-14

(JACKSONVILLE, FL; September 14, 1999) With Hurricane Floyd bearing down on the East Coast of Florida, Crowley Maritime Corporation employees and those of its subsidiaries are taking steps to safeguard employee lives, company assets and customers cargoes.

The US Coast Guard has closed the ports in Jacksonville and Port Everglades, Fla., where Crowley maintains sizeable operations. All Crowley ships have sailed from those two locations and have moved safely out of the path of the storm. Six ships have moved south of Key West, Fla., to wait out the hurricane.

Crowley employees are preparing for the storm in Port Everglades and Jacksonville by blocking and stowing containers and trailers on the terminals, surrounding automobiles with containers for protection, fueling vehicles and generators, removing loose objects that could become airborne in high winds and securing buildings and offices.

Crowleys Data Center in Jacksonville completed a systems back up of all data early this morning and the tapes are being sent to remote recovery locations in Chicago and Atlanta.

If electrical power is lost at the companys operating headquarters in Jacksonville, a 2,000-horsepower (1,400 kvh [kilovolt hour]) self contained generator on site would be capable of providing power to the building, including the Data Center and Centralized Freight Services operation. Diesel fuel has been made available to run the generator for at least two weeks, if necessary.

We are taking this storm very seriously, said Tom Crowley, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation. We are executing our hurricane preparedness and disaster recovery plans such that if business is interrupted, we will be able to resume operations very quickly.

Oakland-based Crowley Maritime Corp., founded in 1892, is primarily a family- and employee-owned company engaged in integrated logistics, marine transportation and related services. The corporation, with more than 100 offices in major ports and cities around the world, has five primary operating subsidiaries: Crowley American Transport, Crowley Marine Services, Crowley Petroleum Transport, Vessel Management Services, and Crowley Logistics.