Sunday, April 26, 2015

SEVERE WEATHER STRIKES THE DAUPHIN ISLAND REGATTA: ONE REPORTED DEAD AS COAST GUARD SEARCHES FOR MISSING PEOPLE, CAPSIZED VESSELS







APRIL 26, 2015

Playing with fire: One has to question the decision to start a small craft race when a severe thunderstorm watch and special marine warnings were already issued in advance of this race.

The Coast Guard responded to reports of several missing people and capsized vessels near Mobile Bay on Saturday.

The Coast Guard said late Saturday night 1 sailor was rescued, but four are still missing.

Coast Guard Sector Mobile received the report at approximately 4:30 p.m. that a sailing regatta in Mobile Bay was struck by severe weather causing multiple vessels to capsize leaving multiple people on the water.

At least one person was confirmed dead, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier told AL.com.

"Apparently there were a number of vessels that became distressed, either capsized or what have you. There were scattered anywhere from Dauphin Island Bridge all the way out into Mobile Bay and across to Fort Morgan. It was a wide area," Collier said.

"When the storm came through the sailboats were in varying places -- all the way from Dauphin Island to Middle Bay Lighthouse."

Coast Guard Sector Mobile responded by deploying the following assets:
Two 45-foot response boat - Medium crews from Coast Guard Station Dauphin Island.

Two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crews from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans.
An HC-144 Ocean Sentry and HH-60 Jayhawk crew from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile.

Unbelievable that this race was allowed to go on with the weather forecast.  Unbelievable boaters didn't have the sense to protect their crews, their boats, and themselves with this weather forecast.


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At least one person has died after a patch of severe weather disrupted the Dauphin Island Regatta Saturday afternoon, leaving more than 100 sailors to struggle with harsh winds and rain.

At least one person was confirmed dead, said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, but he did not know the cause.

"Apparently there were a number of vessels that became distressed, either capsized or what have you. They were scattered anywhere from Dauphin Island Bridge all the way out into Mobile Bay and across to Fort Morgan. It was a wide area," Collier said.

"When the storm came through the sailboats were in varying places -- all the way from Dauphin Island to Middle Bay Lighthouse."

Many needed to be pulled from the water after their boats capsized. The U.S. Coast Guard was still searching for several missing boaters around Mobile Bay Saturday evening.

Richard Mather, 52, of Mobile, was aboard a 39-foot O'Day sailboat along with a crew of seven people, when he saw two boats collide. They had heard about the forecast of thunderstorms, "but we were not prepared for a gale," Mather said, "which is almost like a 30-minute hurricane."

They were not  participating in the race, and were able to pull three people onto the vessel about two miles north of the Dauphin Island Bridge. None of the people appeared injured. "They were exhausted but they were fine," he said. 
"Their boats sunk so fast that they didn't have time to grab life preservers."   
Coast Guard officials said they responded to a report of multiple capsized vessels around 4:30 p.m. Two response boats, an airplane and two helicopters were deployed to search for the missing people.

"There wasn't a clear number how many people were in the water or missing," said Carlos Vega, a Coast Guard spokesperson. He said there were about 119 vessels and as many as 200 people participating in the race.

As of 11:40 p.m., four people were still unaccounted for, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The race was scheduled to start in the middle of the bay, north of the Middle Bay Lighthouse and east of the Mobile Bay Ship Channel. From there, they were to proceed to Dauphin Island, eventually ending the first leg of the course at the headquarters of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.

Around 4 p.m., wind gusts as strong as 59 mph swept across areas of Fairhope, according to the National Weather Service. But forecasters predicted storms with the possibility of damaging winds around 60 mph in areas west of Interstate 65.

Power outages
As of 9 p.m., there were 5,000 without power, down from 23,000 earlier today. The areas with outages included Bayou La Batre, Brewton, Theodore, west Mobile, Prichard, Saraland and downtown some parts of Mobile, according to Alabama Power spokesperson Beth Thomas.

Additional Alabama Power crews from other areas are arriving in Mobile tonight to to help with repairs, Thomas said.

Battered by wind and rain
Kevin Maurin, a veteran of seven regattas, said he'll never forget this one.
Getting caught in a fast-moving storm packing hurricane-force winds out in the middle of Mobile Bay has a way of leaving such an indelible mark.
Maurin said he and seven others aboard a 30-foot Catalina sailboat were about 3 miles south-southwest of Middle Bay Light when one of the crew received an ominous phone call.

"It had been a beautiful day up to that point. We were having a good race and having a good time. Maybe two or three minutes before it hit us, we got a phone call warning us that it was headed our way," said Maurin, who is also president of this year's Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.

"They said it was headed our way. We had just enough time to check the radar and 'boom,' it was on top of us."

It was shortly after 3 p.m when the storm's eastern edge slammed into the boat. For the next 15 or 20 minutes, Maurin said the vessel was battered by blinding rain, blown nearly horizontally across the bay's surface now roiled with abnormally large waves as the gale moved toward the Eastern Shore.

"It was that long before we could even start to see, just to get our bearings and get the boat back on course," he said. "I can't speak for what happened on any of the other boats, but I know what happened on our boat. It scared the hell out of me."

Maurin said one of the crew kept an eye on the boat's wind-speed gauge as the storm reached its peak. He credits the experience of boat captain Joseph Arbour with keeping his crew safe.

"If Joe hadn't have been our captain, I don't think we would have made it," Maurin sid. "He's my best friend in the world. I trust him with my life and never more than today.

'Boats all over the bay'
Capt. Glenn Kornegay, with the Baldwin County Marine Resources Enforcement Division, said he and a fellow Baldwin County officer pulled two people from the water about a mile south of the Theodore Industrial Canal Channel and Gaillard Island.

The man and woman were sailing the regatta on a 16-foot Catamaran when Kornegay said, the man told him the wind from the storm blew his female companion off the vessel.

The man jumped in after her, and Kornegay said that was the last time either saw the boat as the wind and waves quickly pushed it out of sight in the limited visibility caused by heavy rain and 4- to 5-foot seas. Both of them had on life jackets.

Luckily, the woman saved her Iphone even as she fell in the water and was able to contact the Coast Guard.

"She was actually on the phone with the Coast Guard and saw us before we saw her. She she told the Coast Guard to tell the boat with the blue lights on to turn due south and they'll run right over us," he said. "The Coast Guard contacted us and that's what we did."

Kornegay said the pair was in the water about 45 minutes. He said even as the Coast Guard called off the search at dark, he wasn't sure if anyone was left in the water.

Kornegay said it was such a huge event and was really confusing. "In no time there were search and rescue boats all over the bay," he said. "I pray to God that nobody's left out there."

Unbelievable that this race was allowed to go on with the weather forecast.  Unbelievable boaters didn't have the sense to protect their crews, their boats, and themselves with this weather forecast.

UPDATE 3: Coast Guard responding to vessel aground in St. Marys River http://t.co/lCYJL5cMBA
— U.S. Coast Guard (@uscoastguard) April 26, 2015
Update: This report was updated with information from Mayor Jeff Collier at 8:03 p.m.

Update: This report was updated to include additional information from Alabama Power at 9:25 p.m. 

Update: This post was updated to reflect that there are now four boaters unaccounted for at 11:50 p.m.

Playing with fire: One has to question the decision to start a small craft race when a severe thunderstorm watch and special marine warnings were already issued in advance of this race.
Source: http://www.al.com