Jo Frigger, CEO of EMO Trans lives and works in the epi-center of where Hurricane Sandy plowed into Long Island, New York Monday night.
     “Our Freeport office is operational with electricity and computers working.
     “So it’s business as usual and we are fully operational with some phone outages.
     “Will send people home early though, so they can do things while it’s still daylight.
     “Most of them are at work doing a wonderful job for our customers whilst returning home to no electricity.
      “Our home is pretty much destroyed.
     “Monday was a night to remember but we kept our cool, upstairs on the second floor.
     "In the middle of 8 ft.waves with high winds crashing through our front bay windows and splintering our furniture and appliances, the neighbor’s house started to burn down igniting the next house with 60 foot flames, thankfully downwind from us.
     “People saved themselves by swimming across the street in 6 feet of water.
     “The full moon showed an interesting picture of white foam on the waves covering the entire area with spray.
     “The whole scene reminded me a bit of WWII, pure chaos.
     "Our Denali (SUV) which we had left on high ground, floated away regardless.
     “Since there was nothing else to do, I had a glass of wine as a toast to survival.

     Ed Chism is Cargo Manager North America for Emirates SkyCargo.
     “All our staff are safe but unfortunately two of our team who live in Howard Beach, an area which had severe flooding, have incurred substantial damage to their homes.
     “As you know 90 % of Long Island is without power with many streets impassable with downed trees and live wires making for hazardous conditions
     “Major issue at the moment is availability of gas which may effect commuting of staff.
     “Hopefully power will get quickly restored and the petrol stations in Queens that have power but are out of gas will start to receive deliveries today or tomorrow.
     “Unfortunately we had to close our offices due to closure of JFK and for the safety of our staff.
     “But are back up and running today (October 31).
     “During our down time we did not miss a beat (or a call) for this period as we forwarded all calls to our IAH office and were able to satisfy all our customer needs.
     “Our double daily passenger flights from JFK were cancelled effective Monday due to closure of JFK with scheduled services resuming tomorrow, including our freighter operation.
     “We plan to move all ‘on hand’ shipments tomorrow and all shipments routed beyond DXB have been rebooked.
     “Our Washington offices fared somewhat better and were able to operate a full schedule.
     “Currently open for bookings but remains to be seen how much demand there will be over the next few days as trucking was severely impacted due to bridge and tunnel closures.”

     Kenji Hashimoto, President American Airlines Cargo tells FT:
     “American Airlines Cargo continues to evaluate the impact of the storm on the East Coast. The storm damage may cause additional delays and cancellations.
     “As of today, (October 31) there are limited operations at Hartford, CT (BDL) with, the following airports expected to return today to operations:
               Baltimore/Washington (BWI)
               Washington Reagan National (DCA)
               Washington Dulles (IAD)
               Philadelphia (PHL)
      "The New York area airports continue to be impacted as noted below:
               JFK Airport:
               Wednesday, 10/31 accepting hard Freight and Mail only on operating inbound flights. Perishables, high value, live animals, human remains, dangerous goods and ExpediteTC will not be accepted.
               Thursday, 11/1 accepting hard Freight and Mail accepted only for inbound/outbound/transit via JFK Airport. Perishables, high value, live animals, human remains, dangerous goods and ExpediteTC will not be accepted.
                Friday, 11/2. All shipments will be accepted for inbound/outbound/transit via JFK Airport.
               
                Newark (EWR) and New York LaGuardia (LGA) Airports
                Wednesday, 10/31 & Thursday, 11/1 Closed
                Friday, 11/2 Operations will resume.


     “Please be sure that you have a confirmed booking on a scheduled flight before heading to the airport."
More www.aacargo.com

     North of the border up Canada way, where tough weather all winter long is in some manner a Canadian way of life, Air Canada Vice President Cargo Lise Marie Turpin takes Sandy’s incursion in stride, with practical determination and a stiff upper lip.
    “Part of Air Canada Cargo’s strategy is to run trucks from the U.S. Northeast to Canada, with freight destined to stations throughout AC's International Network.
    “This approach has proven successful and our month-end freight and mail volumes were tracking well ahead of last year.
    “While AC's JFK and LGA operations were closed, many NY/NJ customers routed their freight over ORD and DTW.
    “In addition, we experienced BUF and ROC volume increases.
    “Shipments our BUF and ROC customers would typically ‘Gateway’ to JFK were tendered directly to AC at these stations.
    “We're working closely with our JFK customers who are still without power, offering direct pick-ups, pallet building and other custom-tailored solutions.
    “Unfortunately, several of our employees’ and customers’ homes were destroyed or damaged. although as far as we know everyone is safe and sound.
    “As of November 1, AC is back in business in NYC.”

Ray Curtis is Delta Airlines Cargo VP Sales:
     “As Hurricane Sandy approached the Northeast Coast of the U.S. last weekend, Delta Cargo made the decision to close our facilities in New York, at JFK and LaGuardia, as well as Newark, NJ and Boston, starting at midnight Sunday, Oct. 28.
     “Flight operations at PHL, EWR, JFK, and LGA stopped beginning with the overnight flights this past Sunday October 28.
     “In addition flight operations stopped DCA, IAD, BWI, ORF, PHF, RIC, BDL, PVD and PWM.
     “During this period Delta Cargo did not accept sensitive shipments, including live animals, human remains and perishables for travel to or connecting thru these cities.
     “Happy to report as of today Thursday November 1st, service to all northeast cities has been resumed.
     "All Delta Cargo offices are now open.
     "Delta Cargo provided our customers with up to date information throughout the week on deltacargo.com.
     “While there are Delta employees in the effected that have encountered damage to homes, vehicles etc., we were very fortunate that all employees came away from this storm safe.
     “Our hope is that all our colleagues and customers are able to come away from this horrible weather week intact.”

     Achim Martinka, Lufthansa Cargo Vice President The Americas is based in Buckhead, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia.
     This month that began on such a high note with TIACA in Atlanta when Lufthansa Cargo hosted the best party of that week celebrating Oktoberfest, has come down measurably as the prime USA gateway of New York/New Jersey has taken a massive hit heard round the world this week.
     Still Achim sees light at the end of the tunnel and remains positive saying:
     “We had only a few selective cancellations on the passenger-side.
     “Our all-cargo-flights were not affected, as they operate mainly Wednesday-Sunday.
     “All passenger flights are now back to normal, exception EWR and JFK, which should be back to normal by Thursday.
     “As Monday and Tuesday are normally less-demand days for cargo, we experienced only a very limited impact if at all.
     “Also on the part of our customers, we note that most of our service partners planned early enough, meaning that they either utilized alternate gateways or simply ceased distribution for the two days of Hurricane Sandy.
     “We expect a certain backlog till the end of the week but that's it.
     “As we are not in a typical high-season at this point, the situation is very much under control.
     “Of course Lufthansa Cargo stands ready to help our service partners in any way possible whilst extending our heartfelt concerns and best wishes to everyone during this difficult time.”

David Kerr, Vice President Cargo Etihad Airways told FT:      "With JFK closure Monday and all flights cancellation, we protected customers with our interline partners over Europe. So while there was a delay, cargo was still moving.      “Normality expected to return quickly.      "Interestingly as the terrible story unfolded in New York, Abu Dhabi experienced quite a sand storm on Monday!      “We send our best wishes to our friends and colleagues and anyone in harm’s way in New York, with the hope for their safety and quick return to normalcy.”

     Nick Rhodes Director Cargo Cathay Pacific reports JFK airport has reopened and CX has resumed operations.
     “Ground handling and slots are confirmed for CX scheduled flights however today November 1 only 2 runways 13/31 L/R are in use with reduced capacity.
     “Special fuel policy is in place to cater for arrival and departure delays.
     “Pax services resumed from CX888/01NOV HKGYVRJFK and ETA JFK 0700 EDT 01Nov (19:00 HKT).
     “Cargo flights resume normally from CX084/01NOV.
     “We did divert/reroute flights including most HKG/JFK operations from October 28-31.
     “In summary, four JFK freighters diverted to or terminated in ORD.
     “Back-log in ORD is approx 90 tons.
     “Our ORD team is trying all possible to secure trucks to move the freight by land.
Six trucks have already arrived JFK. I
     “In addition we are planning to extend CX3272/02NOV from ORD to JFK so that it can help clear any remaining backlog.
     “We have approx 50 tons of JFK-bound cargo in HKG (from SE Asian ports) awaiting onward carriage.
     “JFK cargo originating in HKG is held with the freight forwarders in their warehouses (hard to estimate tonnage).
     “Also we have approximately 50 tons of HKG-bound cargo in the warehouse in JFK, which we should clear on the first flight today.”

     “While devastating to so many, Saudia Cargo has been fortunate,” Michael Basoco, Regional Sales Director Americas told FlyingTypers.
     “We cancelled six 777 passenger flights but are back with an extra freighter section out of IAD on the 31st with two flights to JED and RUH.
     “Saudia plans to be back to normal levels out of JFK by (today) November 1st.
     “Half of our JFK staff is currently without electricity but they’ve all braved the elements and managed to report for work on the 31st to help customers.
     “We’ve also, shifted out our 747-400 freighter schedule by one day in order to give forwarders time to get back on their feet and start back on Friday November 2nd.
     “I am so very proud of the Saudia team’s dedication to serving our valuable customers in the aftermath of this historic weather event.
     “Our prayers go out to the millions of people affected, as we wish everyone a speedy recovery.”

Geoffrey Arend/Sabiha

     Sometimes during crises, one of our leaders will say something, and in that moment you can feel the paradigm shift; the outlook changes, and spirits are lifted.
     In my lifetime, that leader was Winston Churchill. He was able to raise hopes again and again during the darkest days of the early 1940s.
     On Tuesday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stared down Hurricane Sandy, which completely devastated his Garden State earlier this week.
     The life-long New Jersey native observed the loss of many iconic beaches, boardwalks, amusement parks, restaurants, and neighborhoods up and down the New Jersey coastline, where he had lived as a boy.
     “They are just gone,” the Governor said, his voice growing hollow as the words came out. It was obvious their meaning and the sense of the moment was overwhelming, as he spoke without notes.
     As the camera video rolled, he looked square ahead and touched many hearts by saying simply:
     “To the people of New Jersey, hang in there.
     “Tomorrow, recovery begins.
     “Today was a bit of a day of sorrow for a lot of people.
     “And we need to feel that. It’s appropriate to feel that. We need to feel it and take it in. There’s nothing wrong with that.
     “But as long as sorrow does not displace resilience, then we’ll be just fine.”
     It was an extraordinary moment in an election year—a moment of honesty, spirit, and courage driven right off the shoulder and straight to the heart of everybody who saw it.
     While many leaders had public moments during the terrible natural disaster that touched millions and will cost billions, those extraordinarily simple, honest, patient, and genuine words of courage from Governor      Chris Christie will be remembered long after the clean up is over.
Geoffrey Arend

FT102912