Power restored at Mount Pleasant cargo terminal

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Updated: May 18, 10:14 a.m.

An electrical outage Thursday morning at Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant caused seven cranes that load containers on and off cargo ships to lose power, S.C. Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome said.

The electrical outage occurred around 9 a.m. yesterday. SCE&G worked to restore power by yesterday afternoon. The cause is unknown.

A backup power source at the terminal enabled the terminal gates to remain operational, meaning trucks could still access the port. The diesel-powered cranes that move cargo boxes inside the terminal also were operating.

Newsome said he does not anticipate any trucks or ships to be rerouted to other ports during the outage. Once the power was restored, the cranes became operational again, loading and unloading containers to and from the ships.

The outage occurred while the port is already dealing with the ongoing closure of the eastbound lanes of the Interstate 526 bridge over the Wando River that began Monday. Bridge inspectors noticed one of eight cables supporting the bridge had broken.

Newsome said the port adjusted its gate hours in the hopes that truck drivers can continue to drop off or pick up cargo, as well as help alleviate some of the congestion on the region’s already crowded roadways.