Nicaraguan Navy boat goes missing during Rina evacuation efforts

[News_Editor]

Nicaraguan Navy boat goes missing during Rina evacuation efforts

2011-10-25 17:33:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA (BNO NEWS) -- A speed boat belonging to the Nicaraguan Navy went missing on Sunday afternoon while assisting in the evacuation of more than 200 people in advance of what is now Hurricane Rina, officials said on Monday. More than 25 people were on board.

Nicaraguan Army Colonel Juan Ramon Morales said on late Monday that rescue efforts have been unsuccessful after the Navy's speed boat 093 went missing while assisting evacuation efforts in the Miskito Cays, an archipelago located off shore of the northeastern Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.

Since Saturday, groups of people were being evacuated from the Miskitos Cays when a storm, which has since developed into Hurricane Rina, brought harsh weather to the area. Nicaragua's Navy deployed two speed boats and eleven communal boats to assist in the evacuation of more than 200 people, which continued on Sunday.

Speed boat 093, which was under the command of frigate Henry Noel Campos Santos, was reported missing when a second speed boat which had left later noted that boat 093 had not arrived to the evacuation zone. There were 23 passengers and three crew members on board.

Among the 23 passengers were 12 men, 10 women and one child. Coast Guard search and rescue teams consisting of three speed boats and a light aircraft were soon deployed and continued working on Monday and Tuesday but with no sign of the missing boat.

Rita has already left the area and was located about 210 miles (335 kilometers) southwest of Grand Cayman on early Tuesday morning. Since leaving the region near Nicaragua as a tropical depression it has rapidly strengthened into a category two hurricane.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-10-25