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.
///----------------------------------///
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
The strong weather caused
several power outages in the Mobile area.
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