Oct. 2, 2015: Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin is seen over the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean in this NOAA GOES East satellite image. (Reuters)
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a cargo ship with 33 people aboard that went missing as Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin slammed the Bahamas.
Officials said the 735-foot ship, known as El Faro, was en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida. They said they received notification that the ship had lost propulsion near Crooked Island in the eastern Bahamas, one of the islands most battered by the storm.
The Coast Guard said the crew told officials that the ship had taken on water but that they eventually contained the flooding, Fox30 reports.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and their families,” TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico said in a statement.
The Coast Guard said on Friday that the ship disappeared near the eye of the storm, Fox30 reports.
Two Air Force C-130 Hurricane Hunter aircrews tried to locate and reestablish communications with the El Faro unsuccessfully Thursday. Coast Guard crews remain on scene and will continue search efforts Friday by both air and sea.
Meantime, governors in five East Coast states have declared a state of emergency Friday as the coast prepares for potential torrential rain and severe flooding from Joaquin.
The hurricane is unlikely to make direct landfall, but forecasters are warning of flash floods from historic Charleston, South Carolina, to Washington, D.C., and officials in Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are bracing for the worst.
But the slow-moving storm continued to batter parts of the Bahamas, cutting communication to several islands, most of them lightly populated. There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries, Capt. Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency told the Associated Press.
Residents reached by relatives said they were “trapped in their homes, and reported feeling as if their structures were caving in,” Russell added. “It’s too dangerous to go outside because the flood waters are so high, so we ask that persons stay inside and try to go into the most secure place of their home.”
Joaquin is packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reports. As of 11 a.m. EDT Friday, the storm was centered about 5 miles of Rum Cay and was moving north near 3 mph. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 50 miles and a hurricane watch was in effect for Bimini and Andros Island.
Click for more from Fox30 Jacksonville.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: FOXNews.com
US Coast Guard searches for cargo ship in hurricane with 33 on board – Hurricane Joaquin poses flood risk – TRACK THE STORM AT MYFOXHURRICANE
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