The search continues for a dozen maritime workers missing since Tuesday afternoon when a lift boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico about 8 miles off the coast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
U.S. Coast Guard Hopes to Find More Seacor Power Survivors
Six survivors were pulled from the sea shortly after the Seacor Power overturned in high seas and hurricane-force winds. The remains of one victim were recovered from the surface of the water on Wednesday morning.
While the U.S. Coast Guard has not ruled out the possibility that some of the missing workers went down with the vessel, searchers have not given up hope of finding more survivors.
“Whenever we engage, the Coast Guard engages in a search and rescue effort we are hopeful,” Captain Will Watson said during a press conference held Wednesday morning. “We are saturating the area with available resources to assist in the rescue mission, and we will continue to do so.”
Lift Boat Was Headed to Talos Oil Platform When It Capsized
The Seacor Power, a 129-foot lift boat owned by Houston, Texas-based Seacor Marine, capsized sometime around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13th. Nineteen people were aboard the vessel for a 100-mile trip from Port Fourchon to the Talos oil platform on the other side of Louisiana’s bird-foot Mississippi River delta.
According to Captain Wilson, the lift boat was caught up in 80-to-90 mph winds and 7-to-9-foot seas when it went down. While rough weather was expected off the Louisiana coast on Tuesday, the resulting storm was much worse than forecast.
The search for survivors has been hindered by darkness and poor weather. Nevertheless, the Coast Guard had already covered more than 1,440 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico as of Wednesday afternoon.
Should the Seacor Power Have Been at Sea?
Families of the missing workers have been gathered at a fire station in Port Fourchon since Tuesday night. One woman told the Associated Press she had spoken with her fiancé, a crane operator, just before the Seacor Power got underway.
“He said that they were jacking down, and they were about to head out, and I’m like, ‘The weather’s too bad. You need to come home,” she said. “And he’s like, ‘I wish I could.’”
While the Coast Guard said the vessel capsized during a microburst, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service characterized the event as a derecho – a straight-winds storm.
“This was not a microburst — just a broad straight-line wind event that swept over a huge area,” Phil Grigsby told the Associated Press.
The initial storm system was followed by a low-pressure system called a wake low, which only amplified the winds and made them last longer.
“It was the strongest wake low I’ve seen in almost 18 years here,” Grigsby continued.
According to Captain Wilson, the Coast Guard is working to determine who had a hand in deciding to deploy the Seacor Power under such circumstances and whether they could have anticipated the deadly conditions it encountered.
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