The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and for a Florida carrier or NVOCC it is a business-continuity problem as much as a weather problem. A good plan covers three things: what the Coast Guard port conditions mean for your sailings, how your shipment data stays safe and reachable, and how your team keeps documents, filings and customers moving if the office is closed.
The National Hurricane Center's climatology page states that the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. It also notes that the peak of the season is September 10, with most activity occurring between mid-August and mid-October. Storms can and do form outside those dates, but those six months are the window in which South Florida shipping companies should treat a disruption as a planning assumption rather than a surprise.
For operations managers, the useful takeaway is timing. Your plan should be reviewed and tested before June, refreshed in early August before the most active weeks, and kept in force through November. A plan written in a hurry when a cone appears on the forecast map tends to cover the building and forget the data, the filings and the customers.
In South Florida, the Coast Guard Captain of the Port (COTP) for Sector Miami sets port conditions as a storm approaches. The definitions are in 33 CFR 165.706, a safety zone regulation covering navigable waters within the Sector Miami COTP zone. Each condition is tied to when sustained tropical storm force winds are predicted to make landfall at the port:
| Port condition | Set when sustained tropical storm force winds are predicted within | What it usually means for a carrier or NVOCC |
|---|---|---|
| WHISKEY | 72 hours | Start the plan: confirm sailings, cut-offs and which cargo can still move; warn customers. |
| X-RAY | 48 hours | Expect restrictions; finalize what sails, what holds and where containers will sit. |
| YANKEE | 24 hours | Vessel movements are tightly controlled; office and data plans should already be running. |
| ZULU | 12 hours | Port operations effectively stop; focus on people, systems and communication. |
Other Florida ports fall under other Coast Guard sectors, which issue their own notices. Whatever port you use, the actual restrictions for each condition come from the COTP's announcements and your terminal operators, so make sure someone on your team is subscribed to them and knows where to read them.
A hurricane does not have to hit your office to stop your business. Power outages, flooded server rooms, failed internet links and closed roads all have the same effect: nobody can open the bookings, print a bill of lading or answer a customer. The ready.gov guidance on building a business continuity plan walks through identifying risks and impacts, developing strategies and testing the plan, and those steps apply directly to your data.
If you run GDZ-ISIS or any other operating system, ask your vendor and IT provider the same questions every spring: where is the data, how often is it backed up, how long does a restore take, and who do you call at 2 a.m. after the storm. The answers belong in the written plan.
Do not forget the smaller pieces that stop work just as effectively: the label printer for dock receipts, the scanner used for signed bills of lading, the phone system that forwards the main number, and the passwords that only one person knows. Each of these should have a named owner and a fallback. If your main number cannot be forwarded to mobile phones when the office closes, customers will assume you are closed too.
Customs and documentation deadlines do not disappear because of a storm warning. Cargo that does sail still needs an accurate manifest, export filings and bills of lading, and cargo that is held or rerouted creates corrections afterwards. The weeks after a storm are when rushed amendments and duplicate entries do the most damage.
Our guide to fixing rejected or incorrect ACE manifest filings covers the correction side in more detail.
Most of the cost of a storm for a small carrier is not physical damage; it is confusion. Shippers want to know if their cargo sailed, consignees in the Caribbean want to know when it will arrive, and underlying carriers change schedules several times. A short, regular update beats a flood of individual calls.
A customer portal helps here, because shippers can check status themselves instead of calling. Whatever you use, the key is that status updates come from the same records your team works from, so the website, the emails and the phone answers all agree.
Island consignees deserve particular attention. A storm that misses Miami can still close a destination port in the Bahamas or the Greater Antilles, and a storm that hits Florida can leave cargo already at sea with nowhere to discharge on schedule. Treat destination ports as part of the plan: know who your agent is at each one, how they will reach you, and how arrival notices and releases will be handled if their office or yours is down.
Use this list as a starting point and adapt it to your own ports, staff and systems. Put the final version in writing, give a printed copy to the people named in it, and keep a copy outside the office.
| When | Action |
|---|---|
| Before June 1 | Review the plan, confirm contacts, test a full data restore and remote access. |
| Early August | Refresh the plan before the peak weeks; re-test remote access with the people who will use it. |
| Port Condition WHISKEY | Open-shipment list, customer notice, equipment positions, filing owners confirmed. |
| X-RAY / YANKEE | Final sailing decisions recorded in the system; hardware secured; clean shutdown plan ready. |
| After the storm | Account for staff, restore systems, reconcile sailed versus filed, update customers. |
| After the season | Write down what went wrong and fix it before next June. |
The National Hurricane Center gives the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 to November 30. It notes the peak is around September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October.
Under 33 CFR 165.706, for the Sector Miami Captain of the Port zone, WHISKEY is set when weather advisories indicate sustained tropical storm force winds are predicted to make landfall at the port within 72 hours. X-RAY, YANKEE and ZULU follow at 48, 24 and 12 hours.
Do not assume they do. Cargo that sails still needs its filings, and any relief or special procedure would come from CBP itself. Check CBP notices and talk to your customs broker rather than relying on general rules.
Keep at least one copy off-site and outside the same flood risk, back up on a schedule, and test a full restore before the season. Write down who does the restore and how long it takes.
Send short, regular updates from the same records your team uses: which sailings are confirmed, which are held, and when you will update again. Prepare bilingual templates before the season so they only need dates and vessel names.