Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 1, 1993                   TAG: 9309010082
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EMILY DISRUPTS TRANSPORT BY LAND, BY SEA, BY PORT

Up and down the mid-Atlantic, ports and railroads were disrupted as Emily slowly edged ashore. Tourists and residents along the Virginia Beach waterfront braced for the worst on Tuesday as Emily threatened the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Ships rode out the storm at sea, while ports began to prepare for the possibility that vessels would have to be loaded and unloaded over the Labor Day weekend.

Even before its landfall, the storm disrupted rail service in Virginia and North Carolina as carriers secured terminals and tracks.

CSX Transportation halted service on five routes east of its north-south main line between Richmond and Florida, including a major coal-hauling route between Richmond and Newport News.

CSX Intermodal, which uses CSXT tracks between Richmond and Florida, worked with the railroad to move supplies needed to reactivate service close to areas the storm was expected to hit.

"The preparedness is 100 times better than storms in the past," said Douglas J. Ridgway, CSX Intermodal's general manager for equipment utilization.

Norfolk Southern Corp., whose main lines into Tidewater are on the south side of the James River, ran some traffic Tuesday, but locomotives and other equipment were moved from low-lying yards.

The entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, the mouth of the James River and the Elizabeth River were closed in Virginia.

"This thing is right in the mainstream of north- and southbound traffic," said Bob Raguso, vice president of Weather News Service America in Cranford, N.J., a forecast service for vessels. "It is going to cause havoc with coastwise shipping, especially barges."