The cruise ships are unable to return to Galveston, Texas, after the port was closed.
Transcript for Hurricane Harvey traps thousands on cruise ships off the coast of Texas
hurricane drama playing out offshore. That’s right. Thousands of people are actually stranded on cruise ships. Unable to return to galveston and Ron Claiborne joins us with more on that. Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone. That’s right, the effects of hurricane Harvey there, not only being felt on land but on sea, about 20,000 passengers on cruise ships that were supposed to arrive in galveston, Texas, this weekend. But can’t because the port there is now closed. This morning, four cruise ships filled with passengers and crew are stuck at sea unable to return to Texas because of Harvey. Carnival cruise lines says its ships « Freedom » and « Valor » are being held a safe distance offshore this morning. They’re expected to make a stop in New Orleans at some point later today to refuel and restock with food and water before returning to sea. Passengers will be able to disembark in New Orleans if they choose. The carnival cruise ship « Breeze » scheduled to arrive on Sunday spent the night in cozumel hoping to set sail this afternoon heading back home and royal caribbean’s « Liberty of the seas » also in cozumel has started on its journey back to the U. S. A spokesman for royal caribbean saying they will return to galveston only when it’s safe to do so. That ship was also scheduled to dock there on Sunday. Port officials say they’re monitoring the situation. Galveston is expected to get pounded with heavy rain for the negative several days. So they still don’t know if any of those ships will be allowed to dock on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or beyond. It could be well into next week as ginger was saying before those passengers can get off those ships. We’re going to be dealing with the effects for awhile. Both out at sea and on land, Ron, thank you.
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