Cell phone footage of heavy storm conditions at sea showed the same storm system that left the Coast Guard searching for 12 people missing off the coast of Louisiana today.
The footage was taken yesterday by Aaron Callais aboard his father's shrimp boat, the Ramblin' Cajun. It shows lightning and heavy waves heaving against the boat.
The Coast Guard found one person dead and pulled six survivors from rough seas when their commercial vessel capsized in hurricane-force winds.
Coast Guard Captain Will Watson said winds were 130 to 145 km/h and seas were 2.7 metres when the Seacor Power lift vessel overturned.
“That’s challenging under any circumstance,” Watson said. “We don’t know the degree to which that contributed to what happened, but we do know those are challenging conditions to be out in the maritime environment.”
The bulky vessel with three long legs it can lower to the sea floor to become an offshore platform flipped over yesterday afternoon miles south of Port Fourchon, a major base for the US oil and gas industry.
One worker was found dead on the surface of the water, Watson said at a news conference today. Asked about the prospects of the missing crew, he said: “We are hopeful. We can’t do this work if you’re not optimistic, if you’re not hopeful.”
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