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HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — After Typhoon Sinlaku swept through the area, the U.S. Coast Guard has been actively searching for six individuals aboard a disabled boat off the coast of Guam. The vessel, a 145-foot (44-meter) dry cargo ship named the Mariana, is registered in the U.S.
On April 15, the crew of the Mariana reached out to the Coast Guard, reporting that they had lost the starboard engine and were in need of assistance, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets. To ensure safety, the Coast Guard initiated a communication schedule with the vessel, checking in every hour.
Unfortunately, contact with the Mariana was lost on the afternoon of April 16. In response, the Coast Guard dispatched an HC-130 Hercules aircraft to search for the crew of six. However, the mission faced challenges due to harsh winds, forcing the aircraft to return to Guam. Search operations were planned to resume at first light on Saturday, Tibbets noted.
The last reported location of the vessel was approximately 125 miles (200 kilometers) north-northwest of Saipan. The nationalities of the crew members remain unknown, leaving a gap in the narrative of the unfolding situation.
Earlier this week, Super Typhoon Sinlaku unleashed its force on the Northern Mariana Islands, resulting in significant damage to the islands of Tinian and Saipan, and causing flash flooding in Guam, home to several American military bases.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and several other federal agencies are ramping up their response to Typhoon Sinlaku as dangerous weather conditions ease and the islands’ shelter-in-place orders begin to lift, Robert Fenton, FEMA regional administrator for Region 9, which includes Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, said Friday.
Fenton said a slew of federal agencies are on the ground to support the local governments, including the Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, and more.
The storm’s sheer size — with typhoon-force winds extending 275 miles (443 kilometers) from its center, according to the U.S. National Weather Service Guam — was unique, Fenton said, and meant island residents were subjected to roughly 48 hours of fierce winds, delaying responders’ ability to assess damage and help communities.
“It slows down our ability to respond to those needs, and I think it’s more physically and mentally impactful to those that have to go through that,” he said.
The scope of damage is still being assessed, but significant impacts to power and water systems are already evident, especially in the Northern Marianas.
“We think this will be a multimonth mission of emergency power,” Fenton said.
The U.S. Coast Guard is “working diligently” to reopen the Port of Guam and the rest of the ports in the area but did not have an exact timeline, Tibbets said, calling it one of their “highest priorities.”
As the Coast Guard continues its search for the missing boat, U.S. Air Force helicopters would be used to assess needs in some of the smaller, more remote and sparsely populated islands of the Northern Marianas, Fenton said.
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This story has been updated to correct the rank and pronoun for Avery Tibbets. She is Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets, not Private Third Class Avery Tibbets.