This satellite image taken Friday shows Hurricane Joaquin off the Bahamas.
NOAA via AP
The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday suspended its search for a cargo ship with 28 Americans aboard that went missing in Hurricane Joaquin off the Bahamas.
El Faro — a 735-foot cargo ship en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida — sent out a distress call at 7:30 a.m. Thursday notifying authorities that it had been caught by Hurricane Joaquin, lost propulsion, and taken on water.
The El Faro is seen in a March 2012 photo.
Ship Spotting / Via shipspotting.com
While the five-member Polish crew reported that the flooding had been contained, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had been unable to reestablish contact, prompting a search effort that as of Friday evening had covered some 850 square nautical miles.
Rescuers planned to resume their search at first light Saturday.
The Coast Guard Cutter Northland, HC-130 Hercules airplanes, and a MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter were involved in the operation Friday.
"This vessel is disabled basically right near the eye of Hurricane Joaquin," Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor told the Associated Press. "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."
NOAA / Via nhc.noaa.gov
On Friday evening, Joaquin — a Category 3 storm — had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and was moving north away from the Bahamas at about 7 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service expected Joaquin to track northeast, away from the U.S. eastern seaboard, however, moisture from the storm was expected to produce historic rainfall in the Carolinas over the weekend.
The potential for devastating floods prompted several states, including New Jersey, Maryland, North and South Carolina, to declare a state of emergency. The National Weather Service warned up to 14 inches of rain could fall in South Carolina alone over the next 72 hours.
A map shows projected rainfall totals for the eastern seaboard over the weekend and into Monday.
WeatherBELL Analytics
Joaquin, meanwhile, leaves behind a badly battered Bahamas, where there reports of floating cars and damaged infrastructure that had left several small islands without power. However, there were no reports of fatalities or injuries, according to the nation's National Emergency Management Agency.
The archipelago nation, which is comprised of some 700 islands, many of them lightly populated, frequently finds itself in the path of major storm systems during hurricane season.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1RlJl3j
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