Congestion at Hamilton docks is likely to continue after Hurricane Juan imposed even further delays at the port at the weekend.

President of Stevedoring Services Ltd. Bruce Lines said the threat of the hurricane, which brushed past the Island last Friday, and the impact it had on the seas, caused one of the cargo ships to leave early - before having had all of its empty containers placed back on board.

That, he said, had worsened problems on the docks with congestion and lack of space, which had culminated over the weeks from the Labour Day holiday, Hurricane Fabian and the Bermuda Industrial Union strike of two weeks' ago.

Mr. Lines said there was now very little room to manoeuvre and he urged anyone with full containers or cargo at the docks or sheds to collect them as soon as possible.

"We are still extremely congested and the last hurricane to have an impact on us was Juan," said Mr. Lines.

"The captain of the last vessel was worried about his ship and crew and so he left without taking all of his empties with him.

"He left a pile of them, which was not helpful at all."

The president said he did not wish to name the cargo vessel.

Mr. Lines said there were not so many containers at the docks, many of them creating shadows, and he did not have enough artificial light at the port to cope at night.

"We are still delivering full containers three nights a week until 10 p.m., instead of the usual 4 p.m., in a bid to shift some of the backlog, but the lighting on the docks was damaged during Hurricane Fabian and it's still not up and running properly," he said.

"The empties are creeping out into the yard, so the shadows are going out further and further, so we are having to have a crane operator on site at night, so we can use the lights off one of the cranes to light up the docks.

"We wouldn't normally have a crane operator here that late."

And he said that was costing the company even more money, on top of the additional $3,500 a night in overtime pay when ever the workers stayed until 10 p.m. in order to catch up.

He said the docks were open late last night, and would be open late tonight and tomorrow if truckers wanted to collect their full containers.

Mr. Lines said he was originally hoping to have the backlog shifted by last weekend, but then moved his deadline to this coming weekend. However, yesterday he said it looked as though it would take considerably longer.

He said: "I would say there is a very good chance we will be doing the same thing next week - working overtime. We will continue to do it.

"With the amount of containers moved, I wonder if it's justified, but we have to try and reduce the congestion."