One crew member is dead, 12 are missing and six have been rescued after a large commercial vessel capsized seven miles south of Port Fourchon in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said.
Coast Guard Capt. Will Watson, who is in charge of a region that includes southeast Louisiana, announced the death Wednesday at a news conference where he also provided an update on the second day of search and rescue efforts following the capsizing of the 129- foot lift boat named the Seacor Power.
Watson was tight-lipped with respect to details on exactly what happened when the Seacor Power overturned and came to rest on one of its sides, where it remained as of Wednesday. But he gave the most complete timeline yet of the vessel’s movements on its ill-fated journey.
The Seacor Power departed from Port Fourchon about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 90 minutes before National Weather Service forecasters warned of high winds and severe marine conditions for the Port Fourchon area, Watson said. About 4:30 p.m., another vessel passing nearby reported that the Seacor Power had taken on water and capsized with 19 on board.
An earlier figure provided by officials placed the number of those aboard the Seacor Power at 18.
Watson repeatedly said Wednesday that the intensity of the weather at the time that the Seacor Power overturned was “unexpected” despite the warnings. He noted that there were 90 mile-per-hour winds in the area of the capsizing.
He wouldn’t elaborate on what the Seacor Power’s task when it left Port Fourchon was, but it was headed some 25 nautical miles east to Main Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi River near Plaquemines Parish.
According to its owner’s specifications, the Seacor Power’s maximum speed is about 5 miles per hour. That meant the Seacor Power would’ve likely been halfway to its destination when it capsized, based off what Watson said.
Watson also explained Wednesday that the Seacor Power is a type of vessel that has three 250-foot-tall legs that can be lowered into the sea ground and can lift the vessel up to allow crew members to perform offshore construction.
He said it remained under investigation whether the Seacor Power’s legs were raised — suggesting the vessel was moving — or lowered, meaning the ship was jacked into the sea floor.
Watson said rescue efforts for missing crew members were focused in an area surrounding the Seacor Power, which appeared grounded as of Wednesday. He said Coast Guard helicopter, boat and search plane crews were working the mission, with help from volunteers from nearby Lafourche Parish and across the maritime industry.
He didn’t discuss particulars about how long efforts would go on Wednesday, when the region was bracing for another round of storms. He said safety was a priority and that rescuers were clinging on to optimism that they would find the missing.
“We are giving it everything we have,” said Watson, who added that the vessel’s owner Seacor Marine was keeping in contact with crew members’ families.
The several hours of hurricane-like winds that capsized the Seacor Power resulted from a compact, circular low-pressure system formed in the wake of a line of thunderstorms that stretched across southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday morning.
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