Hurricane Joaquin batters Bahamas as Coast Guard tries to reach disabled cargo ship

Hurricane Joaquin destroyed houses, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as it hurled torrents of rain across the Bahamas on Friday, and the U.S. Coast Guard said it was trying to reach a disabled cargo ship with 33 people aboard that lost contact during the storm.

The Coast Guard said the 224-metre ship named El Faro had taken on water and was listing at 15 degrees near Crooked Island, one of the islands most battered by the hurricane. Officials said the crew includes 31 U. S. citizens and two from Poland.

"This vessel is disabled basically right near the eye of Hurricane Joaquin," said Capt. Mark Fedor. "We're going to go and try and save lives. We're going to push it to the operational limits as far as we can."

Officials said they hadn't been able to re-establish communication with the vessel, which was travelling from Jacksonville, Fl., to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Coast Guard said the crew earlier reported it had been able to contain the flooding.

Fedor said there were waves up to 9-metres high in the area, and that heavy winds could have destroyed the ship's communications equipment. The ship went missing when Joaquin was a Category 4 storm. The hurricane has since lost strength and become a Category 3 storm.

Messages left with Florida-based TOTE Services, the ship's owner, were not returned. The company said in a brief statement that it was working with the U.S. Coast Guard and trying to establish communication with the ship.

Hurricane threat to East Coast fading

As the search continued, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Joaquin's threat to the U.S. East Coast was fading as new forecasts showed it likely to curve out into the Atlantic while moving north and weakening in coming days.

Stormy in the Bahamas

9 years ago

Duration 0:59

Hurricane Joaquin batters the islands

But the slow-moving storm continued to batter parts of the Bahamas, cutting communication to several islands, most of them lightly populated. There had been no reports of fatalities or injuries, said Capt. Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

Officials were investigating reports of shelters being damaged and flooded, as well as two boats with a total of five people that remained missing.

About 85 per cent of homes in one settlement of a couple dozen houses on Crooked Island were destroyed, said Marvin Hanna, an Acklins representative. He said he has had no communication with Acklins since late Thursday morning.

"At that time, vehicles were floating around and the water level was up to the windows of some homes," he said.

Residents reached by relatives said they were "trapped in their homes, and reported feeling as if their structures were caving in," Russell said. "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."

Power also was knocked out to several islands, and Leslie Miller, executive chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, said the company "is in no position to do much" to restore electricity. "All the airports are flooded," he said.

Schools, businesses and government offices were closed as the slow-moving storm roared through the island chain.

'God controls the storm'

Streets were largely deserted as people remained hunkered down on the island of Eleuthera, which was bracing for heavy winds later Friday. Some people were still making last-minute preparations, including Alexander Johnson, 61, who was moving his fishing boat with his brother, Solomon.

"It looks like it's going to make a turn to the north, so we won't get it in full," Johnson said. "That's good for us, because we've seen some rough ones come through here."

Security guard Patrick Bethel said he was thankful there had been no reported casualties and wasn't too worried about what the day would bring: "We just have to see what God will do. God controls the storm."

Joaquin had maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometres per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. By late afternoon, the storm was centred about 25 kilometres west-southwest of San Salvador, Bahamas and was moving north near 11 kilometres per hour. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 85 kilometres and a hurricane watch was in effect for Bimini and Andros Island.

The storm was expected to continue north, with some weakening expected on Saturday as if follows a projected path farther from the U.S. East Coast than originally predicted.

Dangerous wave energy

Rick Knabb, director of the Center, said Joaquin is expected to pass well offshore from the eastern seaboard.

"We no longer have any models forecasting the hurricane to come into the East Coast," he said. "But we are still going to have some bad weather."

In addition, the entire East Coast will experience dangerous surf and rip currents through the weekend, he said.

"Joaquin is going to generate a lot of wave energy," Knabb said, adding that Bermuda might issue a tropical storm or hurricane watch, depending on Joaquin's path.

The Hurricane Center said parts of the Bahamas could see storm surge raising sea levels 6 to 12 feet (as much as 4 metres) above normal, with 31 to 46 centimetres of rain falling in the central Bahamas.

Authorities in the nearby Turks & Caicos Islands closed all airports, schools and government offices. Bermuda, meanwhile, issued a tropical storm watch.

Canadian Press Hurricane Joaquin Track Forecast Map: