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 735-foot (224-meter) 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 28 U. S. citizens and five 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 traveling from Jacksonville, Florida, 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 20- to 30-foot (up to 9-meter) waves 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.
On Friday evening, the Coast Guard said the planes and helicopters involved in the search had returned to base because of darkness and would resume the search for the ship at first light.
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.
As of 11 p.m. Friday, Joaquin had sped up a bit as it moved away from the Bahamas, and remained a Category 3 hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Joaquin was centered late Friday about 60 miles (95 kms) northeast of San Salvador, Bahamas, and about 765 miles (1,230 kms) southwest of Bermuda.
It has maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph), and is moving northeast at 10 mph (17 kph).
A hurricane warning is still in effect for parts of the Bahamas. The Bermuda Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch for Bermuda.
