August 30, 2012 [Stolt-Nielsen S.A.] - Stolt-Nielsen Limited announced today that hurricane Isaac made landfall in southern Louisiana in the early hours of August 29, 2012 as a category 1 hurricane.
The hurricane has caused serious flooding at our Stolthaven New Orleans terminal located at Braithwaite resulting from failure of the levee surge protection system with parts of the terminal being under as much as seven feet of water. All personnel on-site are reported to be safe, and we have currently no reports of any environmental issues or failure of product containment systems.
Prior to landfall of the hurricane the terminal was shut down according to the company’s existing emergency procedures to reduce the chance of damage to the terminal and possible resulting environmental impact. The Company’s incident command system has been initiated and we are monitoring the situation and respond to immediate needs. Our customers have been advised of the Force Majeure event. An assessment of any damage sustained will be performed once the weather conditions improve and the water levels recede. The terminal will remain shut down until it is again deemed safe to resume operations.