Coast Guard Hurricane Ike Update: Search and Rescue Report

Hurricane Watch:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2008 -- The U.S. Coast Guard, as part of a federal, state and local response effort, is involved in multiple search and rescue cases related to Hurricane Ike.

Summaries of selected cases are included below:

• The freighter Antalina, hauling petroleum coke, is disabled roughly 100 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, with 22 persons aboard. The vessel reported 30-foot seas and 50 to 80 knot winds on scene Friday evening. Coast Guard aerial rescue attempts were aborted Friday evening due to the weather. The crew of the Antalina have activated an electronic position-indicating beacon to assist the Coast Guard's effort to track the vessel. The tugboat Spitzer Rotterdam is en route to take the Antalina in tow.

• Approximately 150 people are reported stranded on Bolivar Island, Texas, after roughly 100 persons were already rescued by Coast Guard and local efforts. The response was suspended due to the weather. Operations will resume as soon as weather permits.

• Three mobile offshore drilling platforms were identified as potentially adrift off of the Texas coast. One platform was confirmed adrift and re-anchored. The status of the remaining two is unknown because the platforms have been evacuated. Coast Guard aircraft will conduct flights of the area when weather permits.

• Four persons were washed over a seawall in Corpus Christi, Texas, Friday evening. Three were rescued and the search for the fourth person was suspended Friday night due to the weather. The missing person and another man were walking along a jetty when they were swept away. The other two persons were washed out while trying to assist.

In preparation for Hurricane Ike, the Coast Guard gathered people, vessels and aircraft from around the country into the region to be able to save lives, protect the environment and secure waterways. More than twenty helicopters, nine planes, and dozens of vessels and crews are in the area for Coast Guard operations.

(From a U.S. Coast Guard news release.)

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