Golden Ray Cutting to Begin Today!

 From the  Incident Command Office at the site of the submerged Golden Ray car carrier near Brunswick, Georgia:

"BRUNSWICK, Ga — Cutting and lifting operations for the first section of the Golden Ray wreck will begin today, pending weather conditions and a safety reevaluation. The Unified Command (UC) estimates cutting will take 24 hours."

“We expect there will be noise, fires, product discharges, and debris once we begin the cutting and lifting process. It would be unrealistic to say that this operation will be clean and perfect,” said State On-scene Coordinator John Maddox of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, “We installed a multi-layer environmental protection system and have practiced prevention and response strategies for several months. We are prepared to protect the community and environment of St. Simons Sound.”

 

The ship will be cut into eight sections...each one lifted onto a barge for transport to a recycling center. Once a cut begins, it can not be stopped. It is expected each of the eight cuts will take about a week.

 

In case you are wondering why timlennox.com has been following this off the Georgia Coast story so closely.... the ship is owned by Hyundai, and that company's only U.S. manufacturing plant is in Montgomery. It initially appeared the ship could have been carrying Hyundai vehicles, though we now know that was not the case. There were/are several thousand GM vehicles in the wreckage.