Cargo ship caught by Hurricane Joaquin, no word from crew since Thursday

Joaquin (wa-KEEN) has sped up a bit as it moves away from the Bahamas, and remains a Category 3 hurricane.

Its maximum sustained winds were 130 miles per hour (215 kph) and the storm was creeping to the west at 3 miles per hour (6 kph).

According to Local10, a C-130 Hercules Coast Guard plane flew low to the water to search for the ship.

In an update, NOAA said that Joaquin is expected to continue moving towards the northeast, moving away from the Bahamas.

A majority of the area could see 1 to 5 inches by Monday morning, and 5 to 15 or more inches are possible from Virginia to the South Carolina-Georgia border, the weather service said.

As of Friday, the hurricane was projected to bypass the East Coast, but heavy rains and potential flooding are expected over the weekend.

In its last communication, the crew reported that the vessel had lost propulsion and had taken on water but it was being pumped successfully and the list of the ship was “reported to be manageable”, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, the operator of the El Faro, said in a statement.

Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 storm, is now battering the island nation.

Gusty winds will continue to affect portions of the central and southeastern Bahamas this morning.

In a separate incident, “the U.S. Coast Guard also said one of its helicopter crews had rescued 12 mariners who abandoned their sinking 212-foot cargo ship after it was beset by heavy weather from Joaquin on Thursday evening off the northwest coast of Haiti”, Reuters reports.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the Bahamas due to Joaquin, which cut a path of destruction across several small islands, but two deaths in the Carolinas on Thursday have been linked to heavy rainfall there.

Capt. Stephen Russell, director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency said the last storm to hover over the Bahamas for so long was Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

By 2 p.m. ET, the storm’s eye had passed over the Bahamas’ uninhabited Samana Cay and was churning within miles of inhabited islands.

Joaquin is expected to begin its trek north later in the day, and while the latest forecast map takes it out into the Atlantic, the unpredictable nature of hurricanes could still bring it back toward the East Coast.

“It looks like it’s going to make a turn to the north, so we won’t get it in full”, Johnson said.

Even if Joaquin remains offshore, strong onshore winds associated with a frontal system will create minor to moderate coastal flooding along the coasts of the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states through the weekend. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 50 miles and a hurricane watch was in effect for Bimini and Andros Island.

A stricken cargo ship with 28 Americans on board that vanished during Hurricane Joaquin remained missing early Saturday.