A bomb threat at PortMiami was found to be a hoax on Monday, but it still caused a major disruption. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office found no credible threat after closing down traffic in the port area.
Police deputies were on the scene Monday morning and later determined the bomb threat to be a hoax, however, they increased police presence in the area as a precaution.
Hoax Threat Leads to Traffic Chaos
The port soon returned to Maritime Security Level 1, meaning normal operations were resumed, but it resulted in long, backed up traffic as it closed the port’s tunnel.
“PortMiami is working with all authorities to ensure the safety of residents, visitors and workers due to a security concern,” the port authority said. The tunnel closure caused significant disruption for cargo truck drivers and cruise passengers. Some cruise guests spoke to local media fearing they would miss their cruise departure.
“We’re just sitting here in traffic, drivers going around, while everybody’s honking, and everybody’s getting crazy,” said cruise passenger Icuis Matthews.
“We were stuck in that traffic for more than an hour. We were freaking out because we had to get here before 1 pm but eventually we made it,” said another cruiser, Emmanuel Anaba. There were no reports of any disruption to cruise ship operations.
Police haven’t given any details about the nature of the bomb threat or if it was targeted specifically at a cruise ship or cargo operator. Bomb threats aimed at cruise ships are very rare but not unheard of.
A 19-year-old male from Michigan emailed a bomb threat against the Carnival Sunrise ship last year which turned out to be a hoax. Joshua Darrell Lowe II was indicted and could face five years in prison and thousands in restitution. The cruise ship was escorted into Jamaica by Marine Police while over 1,000 staterooms were searched. Another bomb scare happened at Port Everglades that locked the terminal down in 2018.
