Carnival Cruise Line makes an agreement with the city of New Orleans and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to house first responders helping with recovery efforts in New Orleans. It comes after the city is recovering after Hurricane Ida hit at the end of August.
Carnival Glory to House New Orleans First Responders
The Carnival cruise ship will be used to house first responders involved in recovery efforts in New Orleans. The cruise line has agreed with the city for the Carnival Glory to be used through September 18, 2021. The ship will house up to 2,600 first responders, hospital workers, utility workers, and various personnel involved in recovery efforts.
“While we want to provide the city of New Orleans with an economic boost by restarting guest operations, we want to first provide this critical housing support to address emergency needs and to get power restored to the region,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We appreciate the understanding of our guests, who we know love New Orleans as much as we do.”
As a result, the cruise line has cancelled the ship’s scheduled September 12 departure from New Orleans. The ship was scheduled to depart on a seven-day Western Caribbean itinerary, including calls at Mahogany bay in Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel in Mexico.
The cruise was set to be the first return voyage for Carnival Glory following the cancellation of the September 5 departure. That voyage was canceled also due to the impact of Hurricane Ida. The city was still under emergency management in the following days, along with the route towards the New Orleans cruise terminal remaining closed.
Added Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO Port NOLA and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. “Port NOLA appreciates Carnival’s deployment of Carnival Glory to New Orleans. Her berths will accommodate the hardworking first responders and essential personnel working on storm recovery efforts in our region. Port NOLA, our Federal, state, and local partner agencies all support those who are quickly restoring critical infrastructure in the city and helping to get cargo moving again.”
The loss of power has heavily impacted the city, and workers are pushing to restore the power grid. The port’s operations are mainly closed, but preparations are underway to reopen. Carnival Cruise Line is now planning to restart operations from New Orleans on September 19.
The September 19 voyage will be a seven-day itinerary to the Bahamas that includes Bimini, Freeport, and Nassau visits. Carnival Glory will become the tenth ship in the fleet to resume passenger operations and the first out of New Orleans.
The Conquest-class vessel first arrived at the port on September 3 and underwent U.S. Coast Guard inspections. Since then, the ship has been taking on food, water, and materials ready for the first responders.
Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line’s Grand Classica ship is also being used to house around 1,500 workers in New Orleans and has already arrived to begin preparations. Many of those will be working on restoring damaged power lines and bringing the power grid back up.
