Coast Guard searching for missing cargo ship near eye of Hurricane Joaquin

Forecasters in Miami say Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 storm, is centered about 500 miles (805 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda and has top sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph).

Hurricane Joaquin is lingering over the Central Bahamas, and the unsafe Category 4 storm is expected to affect the islands through early Friday.

An Air Force base in south Mississippi says two planes with ‘Hurricane Hunter’ air crews that flew into Hurricane Joaquin had also been involved in the search for the USA cargo ship lost with 33 people on board.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy teams looking for the missing container ship, El Faro, have found “multiple items” during their search, including an oil sheen, the Coast Guard said Sunday.

The Coast Guard could not confirm that the objects belonged to the El Faro, which sent a distress call on Thursday in the Bahamas but has not been heard from since. The crew reported it had taken on water and was listing 15 degrees but said it was “manageable”, according to the company.

“Because we found a life ring, the assumption can be made that we are searching in the right area”, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios.

Hurricane Joaquin swirled away from the Bahamas early Saturday, after slamming parts of the archipelago for more than two days.

TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, the operator of the ship, said in a statement that it told family members of the crew, who gathered at a union hall in Jacksonville, Florida, that they should not be discouraged by the discovery of the life ring and that it will help the Coast Guard with the search. Search and rescue efforts continued Saturday, after covering 850 square nautical miles on Friday, but turned up no sign of the ship.

A hurricane warning is in effect for much of the Bahamas and other islands.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray noted that the ship may have been able to ride out the storm as it passed, or it might have been dragged northward with it. The problem is that, at this point, nobody really knows.

On Friday, it destroyed houses, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as it hurled torrents of rain across the Bahamas.

The Bahamas’ National Emergency Management Agency was working on damage assessment, and did not immediately have casualty figures. They said scores of homes had already been evacuated because of flooding, including in the coastal county that includes Myrtle Beach. “In addition, the entire East Coast will experience unsafe 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”.

“We can’t assume”, he said.

“There were people that were stuck in vehicles that were flooded and water in a few of the homes was up over the electrical outlets”, he said.

The track has the storm moving away from the United States but headed toward Bermuda.

Doss said weather conditions in the search area had greatly improved on Sunday which would enable Coast Guard ships or a helicopter to retrieve the debris for verification.

South Carolina emergency officials said flash flood warnings had been issued for numerous counties.