Six people had been rescued and safely transported to shore.
As a ferocious storm whipped up towering waves off Louisiana on Tuesday, a commercial vessel carrying 19 people capsized in the Gulf of Mexico, sparking a mass rescue operation by the U.S. Coast Guard and a fleet of good Samaritans that continued into the next day. One person was found dead on the surface, and a search effort continued for 12 people who were missing, officials said during a Wednesday news conference. Six people had been rescued and safely transported to shore. The vessel was the 129-foot liftboat Seacor Power, according to Armond Batiste, a spokesman for Seacor Marine, which owns the vessel. Coast Guard Capt. Will Watson told reporters that a crew of 19 was aboard the vessel when it departed at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Seacor Marine had previously told The Washington Post that 18 people were aboard when it capsized. Watson said officials are trying to find the six people. “I’ll put it to you this way, whenever we engage, the Coast Guard engages in a search and rescue effort, we are hopeful,” he said during the news conference. “You can’t do this work if you’re not optimistic, if you’re not hopeful when you do it…. We’re one day approximately into this operation and we’re giving it all we got.” The Coast Guard first received an alert from an emergency beacon from the Seacor Power at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday as the ship foundered about eight miles off Port Fourchon, a coastal town nearly 100 miles south of New Orleans. At the time of the capsize, Watson said, there were 80-90 mph winds, seven- to nine-foot waves and “extremely limited visibility.” “That’s challenging under any circumstance. We don’t know the degree to which that contributed to what happened, but we do know those are challenging conditions to be out in a maritime environment,” he added. Watson said details of the vessel’s mission and why it may have continued amid challenging conditions is under investigation. He said authorities are communicating with survivors and the company. “We’re focused on the search and rescue effort more than anything right now, but those details will come out in the days and weeks ahead as we learn more about what went on,” Watson said.
