Marine Terminal crowded with SUVs

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - The long-vacant Portsmouth Marine Terminal was crowded this week with deliveries of sport-utility vehicles ready to be shipped to dealerships.

Normally, the foreign-made vehicles would have been unloaded at the Newport News Marine Terminal.

But thanks to Hurricane Sandy, port officials in Hampton Roads needed to find extra space because shipments were diverted from the Port of New York-New Jersey.

The Daily Press reports there were 6,500 containers diverted from New York to Hampton Roads. Virginia Port Authority spokesman Joe Harris says those boxes are quickly going to final destinations in the New York region and to the Midwest.

But Harris says it will take at least a month to ship out all the vehicles that have to be detailed and then loaded on car-carrying trucks.