After being closed for the past two days due to hardware failure, Port Houston's Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals are to open today at 3:00 pm to truck traffic.
"You now have access to Lynx and N4 (for those that access N4 externally)," the Port of Houston said today in a statement. "API and EDI are able to be exchanged. Check back for another update soon about final gate operation decisions. Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Before truck gates opened at 7 a.m. July 27, the port "experienced a major failure of the storage devices that support all of the applications used to operate" both terminals, according to a July 28 letter from Port of Houston's Executive Director Roger Guenther. Although port staff moved the applications and associated data to a redundant set of storage devices to reopen the terminals by 10 a.m., the redundant storage devices also failed at noon July 27.
Guenther emphasized that the Port Houston operating system did not experience a cyberattack.
The terminals were not able to process transactions since around noon July 27, so new vessel starts have not been possible. However, those ships that were already in progress were able to continue working, Guenther said.
"In addition to Port Authority staff, our contractors have also been working around the clock to rectify the issue as soon as possible," Guenther said in the July 28 letter. "All necessary hardware is now in our possession, but configuration and restoration of all components has been a slow process. Frankly, the outlook for reopening today is not good."
Once operations are able to resume, the port plans to offer daily extended gate hours and weekend gates, Guenther added.
"We certainly recognize the impact this situation has on our industry partners and we ask for your patience," he concluded. "Also, please know that we have every available resource working to restore our systems and return to work to serve you as quickly as possible."
Port Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of nearly 200 private and public industrial terminals along the 52-mile-long Houston Ship Channel. The port ranks No. 1 in the United States in foreign waterborne tonnage and other metrics.
