Ports on the US east coast which were closed or restricted because of Hurricane Hermine have returned to normal service the US Coast Guard (USCG) says.
Hermine began as a tropical depression that moved up from Cuba and led to the closure to maritime traffic of the ports of Savannah and Brunswick (both in Georgia) and Charleston (South Carolina) while others up the coast as far as New Jersey and Delaware were put on alert.
It made landfall in Florida on Friday as a hurricane – the first to do so in the state since 2005 – and damaged crops and property before weakening and moving up the east coast.
The hurricane declined to a post-tropical cyclone and moved out to sea off the mid-Atlantic coast.
But port and ship operators were advised by USCG to be cautious in storm-hit coastal areas and to be on the lookout for debris or pollution in the waters.
Hermine had also led to the evacuation and shut-in of several oil rigs and platforms in the east of the Gulf of Mexico but those had all returned to normal manpower levels by Monday.
