coast guard, the american bureau of shipping and tote. the ntsb has put together a multi-disciplinary team to investigate every aspect of this accident. the team is led by investigator in charge thomas rothroafi to my right who has extensive experience long-time experience in marine investigations and a group of investigators who have made progress in a number of areas. so here is what our investigators are working on as we speak. our operations group has been scheduling and conducting interviews specifically they're interviewing the master of the sister ship of the "el faro." our engineering group obtained the vessel's safety management system. they're interviewing the tote designated person ashore with the last communications with the vessel. they're collecting documentation and scheduling interviews with the off rotation members of the crew. in the area of survival factors, our investigators are reviewing areas of the safety management system, as well. they'll be examining the wreckage which is recovered in the search and the rescue ph

the only way through it is on this ship - the coast guard cutter healy. it's one of only two ice breakers in the united states built to handle polar ice. the ride can get a little rough. >> that noise there - that's the sound of being in the bow of an icebreaker. >> but there is trouble in this frozen paradise. now images like this are becoming more common in the summer months. we even caught a polar bear. >> look! look on the camera screen, he's dead center. >> we see it moving. >> like many species - forced to search further for ice and food - as sea ice retreats in this part of the world. the arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe - and that's causing a sea change in this frontier. summer sea ice has receded close to 25 percent since 1979. on land we saw it, birch trees are sprouting on the tundra, and melting permafrost is causing land - and structures to sink. captain jason hamilton is the healy's commanding officer. he's also a veteran of both poles. >> 10 years ago when i first was operating this was complete ice whereas now we ha

the boats are not the concern of the coast guard today. they know if you invest the amount of money it takes to own one of the boats the chances are you have locked it down and secured it. so they are not worried about me. what they told me today is they are concerned about the kayaks and the canoes, the other boats that you stock along the dock and the shoreline. maybe you don't secure them or tie them down. as a result, they may wash out in the bay. this is the problem. if the coast guard gets a call or if they are out on the water and they see them. they have to handle that as though there is a potential missing person tied to the boat. they have to go through the protocols. do potential searches. it's a concern for them. they don't want to put people on the water if they don't have to. they have to address the concerns. they can't assume that the wind and the we have as pulled the vessels to shore. that is what i they are asking people to secure them. they tell me that people should not be on the water. if you are going to take the cha

we have three coast guard cut you ares on scene. tugs hired by the shipping company, and we have a full schedule of aircraft that are flying all day today. but again, we are going to fly them much lower and focused in on smaller objects at sea. so that is our plan moving forward. we are -- remain hopeful that we will try -- we will hope flfull find survivors. that is our focus as we move forward. >> can they survive a category 4, borderline category 5 hurricane? what are the expectations? >> there are two life boats on el fargo. they could each hold 43 people. the one we found had no signs of anyone being in it. what we have to assume as search planners is if the vessel did sink on thursday and that crew was able to april banden ship, they would have been abandoning ship into a category 4 hurricane. you are talking up to 140-mile-an-hour winds, seas upwards of 50 feet. visibility basically at zero. those are challenging conditions to survive in. >> what do these life suits consist of? how do they help somebody in conditions like thi

now i got to spend twelve days aboard an arctic ice breaker - the us coast guard cutter healy. let me just say, it was complicated. >> and phil, both weather and climate change are huge parts of the story because the sea ice in the arctic is receding. >> and i actually got to see that sea ice receding in action, and the scientists up there that were monitoring this are overwhelmed by the speed that this is actually happening. >> well it seems that the more the ice recedes, the easier it would be to drill right? >> yeah but what happens is actually different because even though the sea ice is gone, the extreme weather conditions remain and that's causing big problems for big oil. >> the arctic - remote, breath-taking - and one of the world's harshest frontiers. for years it's been a front line in a battle over the future of energy and climate change. temperatures here are rising twice as fast as the rest of the world. but the arctic may hold 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil. in july, 2015, shell began its controversial journey to the arctic. its mission - to drill an e

i thank you for your strong support of our coast guard and men and women in uniform. it is a pleasure to be here today the two of our most important partners, customs and border protection and domestic nuclear protection. the nation's safer in no small part to the partnerships that we have with these two organizations: i would like to personally thank the commissioners for their ongoing support and leadership. the complete statement has been submitted to the subcommittee. through a layered security approach coast guard pushes border security out well beyond the nation's shoreline of fostering strategic relationships with partner nations to detect, deter command counter threats as early and is far from us shores possible in order to prevent an attack on the homeland. coast guard efforts begin overseas with robust international partnerships to provide access to maritime ports of origin. through our international port security program the coast guard performs overseas port assessments to confirm the foreign trading partners meet international standards for security and a

captain, thanks so much, from the coast guard. thanks for being with us. >>> i am joined now by christine dennison, an ocean explorer. christine, you heard the captain from the coast guard just now. give us your take on what the rest of the crews are up against. >> i think captain fedor expressed exactly what the conditions are very clearly. they're up against really nasty storm, they're up against huge seas, up against bad weather, and that makes for a very complicated and difficult search pattern. they are following the storm, find thing life raft is a very good sign. at this point, all they can do is wait for the weather to calm down. >> you're familiar with the ocean. you're an ocean explorer. they went out on tuesday night. should they have known the dangers that they would be coming upon given the route they were taking? this isn't 1930. we have an idea, advanced notice of these kinds of storms. >> i agree with you. i know this area, having run several expeditions to this area, and you have water starting at 5,000 feet going

we were also searching for members of the extended coast guard family, one of our coast guard petty officers, chief petty officers had a brother that was on the el faro. i received an e-mail yesterday from one of our civilian employees at the coast guard yard in baltimore, maryland, and he told me his family and friends, good family and friends he saw one of the crew members come home as a baby, saw him grow up, saw him go off on the el faro. those type of things make it very personal as we search. but i know that the coast guard, along with our brethren in the navy and the air force, as well as the commercial tugs that were out there helping us search did all they could in this search effort. they did all they could. our coast guard crews, our aircraft, you know, flew repeatedly into that storm at dangerously low altitudes to try to find the ship, find survivors. on sunday one of our helicopters flew for 11 hours, over 11 hours including two in flight refuelings because they wanted to keep that search going during the best search opportunity that we had on sunday. our cutter crews, as soon

the coast guard searching 850 square nautical miles yesterday alone. the ship left jacksonville, florida, tuesday enroute to san juan, puerto rico. thursday, a distress call indicated it lost power. it was leaning and all the flooding had been contained according to the distress call. the ship has not been heard from since. it's last known location nook the crooked island in the bahamas. this image shows a white arrow as the approximate last location of the ship. the ship missing in the middle of hurricane joaquin as a category 4 storm. the coast guard fearing it is disabled near the eye of the storm where there were 20 to 30-foot waves and heavy winds and could have destroyed the ship's communications and the search as i said continuing. >> any idea why the ship was out at sea in the first place? >> is t ship's company saying why they were out there in the first place and saying it's a first question on people's mind and how can they have been sent out to sea knowing that a major hurricane was forming off the coast of florida. the cargo ship's company

we have three coast guard cutter on scene. commercial tugs that were hired by the shipping company. and we have a full schedule of aircraft that are flying all day today. but again, we are going to fly them much lower and focused in on smaller objects at sea. so, that is our plan moving forward. we remain hopeful that we will try. we will hopefully find survivors. that is our focus as we move forward. be glad to take a few questions. >> reporter: can they survive in category 4, borderline category 5 hurricane, and what are the expectations? >> there were two life boats that were on the "el faro," they could each hold 43 people. the one we found had no signs of anyone being in there. what we have to assume as search planners, if the vessel did sink on thursday and that crew was able to abandon ship, they would have been abandoning ship into a category 4 hurricane. so, you're talking up to 140-mile-an-hour winds, seas upwards of 50 feet, visibility basically at zero. those are challenging conditions to survive in. >> reporter: w

coast guard as well as the ntsb with a big announcement that the coast guard is now suspending the searchor the ship that sunk a few days ago, according to the u.s. coast guard. alexandra field joins me now. you've been covering this story from the families from the very beginning. obviously this is devastating for the families. >> absolutely. they've been in agony for days. when you heard the coast guard speak just a couple of days ago about reaching the debris field initially, we heard from the coast guard about the conditions that these people would have been thrown into as the ship sank. frankly, it was very painful. certainly you have to imagine for the families to lip to that because the coast guard was explaining that these are people that would have been abandoning ship, a cargo ship, sinking in the middle of a category 4 hurricane. so waves were crashing more than 50 feet high, wind speeds more than 140 miles per hour. these are the same conditions that made the initial days of searching so difficult. it was nearly impossible to get the search teams to the area where they believe

coast guard.by most accounts it would appear that the global nuclear detection architecture and numerous federal programs, activities, capabilities, that are implemented to fulfill this strategy seem to be meeting the challenge of keeping radiological or other nuclear threats outside the u.s. homeland. this is something we ought to be grateful for. and i certainly appreciate that. because of the effort made by thousands of federal employees every day to protect us. yet we cannot let our guard down, for even the likelihood of a terrorist cell smuggling weapons of mass destruction into the company in a shipping container may be low, but the consequences would be catastrophic. at least that's what we learned in 2005. and because the risks are potentially catastrophic, we must continue to do everything possible to make sure it doesn't happen. among the questions we're going to be asking or at least i will be asking, i'm sure you will also, mr. chairman and members, are we adequately testing and valida

>> so, as i mentioned in my opening statement, sir, all coast guard bord i coast guard boarding teams carry radiation sensors. all the boardings that the admiral mentioned include that component. we've worked with our partners to give them the capability to give them small vessel scanning. whether they are scanning a marina for a fourth of july event or they have some basis or some reason to go up out at sea to look at a particular small vessel, they have now capability. not just that they can carry on their backs but in their boats as well. >> okay. >> the coast guard also asked us to look at detecting from above. so, we have a very interesting research project where we are looking at the ability to equip coast guard's fixed wing and rotary craft with detection systems so they can scan out at sea from above as well. >> excellent. admiral, on the ais, what about an exchange -- theoretical exchange at sea? i mean, you've had maybe the containers have been scanned. we know the risk, but a ship container. i mean, theoretically i guess if someone was watching every vehicle's ais at every

the coast guard has been searching since thuray and has yet to find anyone alive. today the coast guard said it is not give up on finding missing crew members aboard el faro searching by air and sea. >> we are still looking for survivors or any sign of life. >> family members are trying to stay optimistic. >> they need to bring my daughter home. >> all odds are survival are growing increasingly slim. >> we are assuming that vessel has sunk. we believe it sank in the last known position we recorded open thursday. >> so far, rescuers found debris with cargo from the ship scattered in the ocean along with this life preserver and they found at least one body. >> in one of the philadelphia suits we did identify human remains. we also recovered a light boat that had the markings of el faro on it and damned one of two lifeboat on the ship. the coast guard said despite the unforgiving conditions brought on by the hurricane they not going to discount someone's will to survive. >> the coast guard said an express will take place to try and explain why the ship headed directly

the coast guard is flying at two. scott, the captain told me tonight, quite frankly, the safety of his crew is on the line because they are literally pushing their limits to find that ship and save that crew. >> pelley: coast guard goes out when other ships are sinking. david begnaud, thanks very much. today, u.s. astronaut scott kelly sent this picture of joaquin from the space station. the bahamass for two days. it's expected to track north over the weekend, and turn away from the u.s. coast. the east coast is already flooding from a separate nor'easter, and kris van cleave has that. >> reporter: the problem is too much water, punishishing waves in new jersey, coastal flooding in ocean city, maryland, and streets underwater in charleston, south carolina. outside new york city, crews are working to keep the water from this slow-moving nor'easter away. in virginia beach, nearly nine inches of rain since wednesday has the ground saturated. public works. >> you can't assume because it hasn't flooded before it's not goin

we'll bring in coast guard captain leading the coach. we spoke on friday captain as we learned about the story and heard from you at 10:00 eastern time. any news or sitings of anything new in the water? >> nothing new in the water. we are aggressively searching that area. we have three coast guard cutters out there and commercial tugs and oceangoing tugs that the shipping agency and we have a full slate of aircraft including coast guard c- 130 and navy. >> and i would like to talk about the life saving devices on the ship. you mentioned a lifeboat and we have images of lifeboat. what is on the ship to help save the crew. >> there are two lifeboats on board. they are boats and capable on the el faro of carrying 43 people. and they are hard structures that can be lowered. and they have life ra fts in a case and manually inflated and built and designed if a vessel sink and it is pressure triggered the mechism and there are three on board. >> you mentioned finding remanents of the lifeboat in the water. >> yesterday. we had good search condi

i would say that is pretty petulant to not send anyone besides coast guard. to discuss the scenario of a dirty bomb, radiological dispersal device in the us port. a potential. the united states has an exclusive economic zone spanning 3.5 million square miles of open shoreline, 360 ports and numerous small harbors across the country. a maritime border is unique due to its sheer size and the potential use of moving large quantities of materials undetected. if you can carry thousands of pounds of something you can carry thousands of pounds of something else. this can assist in disrupting future efforts. security measures were enacted to better protect our homeland by expanding efforts to detect and deter threats overseas. obviously much better to find things when they are not on us shorelines including screening cargo manifests before containers are loaded, scanning shipping containers that have been determined to be high risk, screening personnel data, knowing where a ship and its cargo have been, and intercepting a vessel at sea and preventing its entry. we wi

coast guard hovering over choppy world trade center in the bahamas. trying to locate this american cargo ship the el far as strong winds rock the island nation with 130 miles per hour winds from hurricane joaquin. this vessel disabled basically right near the eye of hurricane joaquin. >>reporter: with 33 people on board, 28 of them americans, the el far was heading from jacksonville, florida to san juan, puerto rico. when the ship september distress notification that the 7 35 foot long vessel had lost propulsion and was listing at 15 degrees. this just hours after the u.s. coast guard stage dramatic nighttime rescue of 12 people who had abandoned the bailiff an cargo ship 51 miles north of haiti. >> survivor halfway up. >> tonight the hope for the same kind of rescue. for those 33 people aboard the el far. >> this is what we train do do. well go and try to save lives. >> that crew hasn't been heard from sense thursday morning. conditions worse than what we

but again the coast guard's official search for survivors will end tonight at sunset. kimberly bookman, 7news. >>> and stay with 7news for updates on these breaking stories. you can check updates on other mobile app and twitter and facebook. >> turning to our weather, a bright and sunny day out there with temperatures heating up once again. but the question is how long will it stick around. pete has the answer. >> cooling off later tonight be, ryan and tomorrow, as well. 71 was our high in boston. 72 in norwood. through nashua and bedford. grand stuff, and temperatures in the mid-60s out through cape cod. still at 71 and holding through the afternoon. these temperatures will crumble as we go toward sunset, of course, and that front is crossing so the cooler air is shuffling in. a few clouds around across northern new england indicative of some of that colder air, and i really think it gets in here tomorrow and shuts down any idea of 70s. so expect us to be in the 60s for tomorrow and overnight tonight falling through the 60s and into the 50s. 40s by morning, especially

the coast guard believe it sank after that in crooked island. the coast guard did manage to recover one of ship's lifeboats but the ferocity destroyed it. the other lifeboat remains missing. several coast guards have searched about 200,000 square miles of ocean. the past four days have been ideal conditions with just one foot wave and great visibility but so far to date only one deceased crew member has been found by coast guard searching my air. that person, don't know if it was man or woman, still zipped up in his or her floatable survival suit which failed to do its job entirely. >> hearing the pings that should be pulsating out of data recorder on the ship. that's the ship's black box. >> ocean is a big and complicated place. it does issue pings for 30 days. that's the life of the battery. >> compounding the challenge is that vdr and the ship itself are believed to be resting 15,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. will the pings make it all the way to the top and will it ever be able to be retrieved? don't know. >> thank you. >>> what d

. >>> and still no sign of that missing cargo ship lost at sea during hurricane joaquin but the coast guard made a discovery that could provide a new clue in their search. >>> there's still no sign of a cargo ship that remains missing off the coast of the bahamas. the el faro was en route from jacksonville to puerto rico when it lost power and took on water from the rough water during hurricane joaquin last week. one of the people on board did make a distress call on tuesday. the coast guard located thousands of pieces of debris during a field search yesterday but only confirmed one life ring belonging to the ship. families say they continue to pray for their loved ones to return. >> i just want to say to this community, we really, as families of these people, these men, we're asking for your prayers, sincere prayers because in this situation that's all that we can do. >> officials are the shipping company say they're meeting with family members and they say the coast guard will continue their search today. >>> mandatory curfews are in place now as record rains continue to fall. south carol

this is that new video mention mentioned by the coast guard. the cargo ship vanished thursday when it vanished during a routine trip from florida to puerto rico. 33 people are on board including four people from the state maine. some family members of those on board the ship said the cap pan should have found a way around the category 4 hurricane. pan. >> if blame is to be done is on the hurricane, not the captain. the captain is looking out for his crew. >> the coast guard has found the 225-square-mile area littered with styrofoam, wood and cargo. family families of those on board gathered in florida waiting on word on what happened. >> it is very difficult, but i supportive to be with people who are going through the same thing that we are. that makes it -- if you can even say that -- a little less heartwrenching. >> the shipping company says they have four lifeboats that can hold 15 to 17 people each. the captain makes the decision on which route to take. of course we will be following the situation for you all morning. in the newsroom, dani

coast guard still frankly hasn't directly. the coast guard believes the missing cargo ship sank off the bahamas at height of hurricane joaquin. a one crew member was found in the search for the el faro, that is the name of the ship and including a heavily-damaged lifeboat. the coast guard are searching for any survivors. the planes will fly all day long and loyer for closer look at the water. the coast guard said if they managed to evacuate they were facing a category 4 hurricane with high winds and waves. 28 of the el faro crewmembers are american. we want to get perspective where the ship was sailing and in conditions like that. he has spent 30 years plus in the water. participated in search and rescueses. he joins you on the phone. captain sweeney, the area where this cargo container ship went down on what the edge of what we refer to the as legendary bermuda triangle. you sailed in this area of the world, what can you tell us about it? >> yes, jenna. the area of the bermuda triangle the ship is went down is known as hurric

the coast guard said the men had mild hypothermia. also on saturday, a crew from the coast guard's cape may station had to tow a sail boat to safety. the boat broke down and with a freeze advisory the person on board the boat could not risk spending the night on the water. >>> nine minutes after 4:00. the music tells you it's time for a look from our eagle's nest camera. the stadium is calm and quiet now. tonight you know the joint will be jumping as the birds host their arch rival the new york giants on "monday night football." even more than a rivalry game, tonight's contest is a battle for first place in the nfc east. the eagles 2-3, the giants a game ahead, 3-2. here is a look at coach tom coughlin and the g-men arriving in center city yesterday. eli manning on pace for a career season so far but he's lost to the eagles in the 11 of their last 14 meetings. and he knows the birds and their fans will be jacked tonight. >> it will be loud and fired up, rocking, so we've got to do our job and we got to go out and play smart, handle th

the coast guard is updating the search at 10:00 this morning. we will, of course, bring you any new details. >>>. >>> hurricane joaquin is being blamed for one death in the bahamas. the coast guard flew over the island chain. many homes were damaged. some under water. home and internet services -- phone and internet services knocked out. eight groups are working to bring relief to that region. we continue to track the tropic we continue to track the tropics this hurricane season. you can get the latest weather continental on the weather app. it is available for free at itunes and google play. >> flames were shooting through the roof and black smoke was seen for miles. this morning no cause. fox25's jessica reyes last seen outside the apartment on russell street to explain how fire fighters got to the scene so fast. jess, good morning. >>reporter: good morning, gene. fire fighters were doing a drill pretty close to where this fire started and they were able to get here quickly and the flames under control. this is the building where the fire star

the coast guard has not confirmed if any of the recent debris belongs to the ship but the coast guard managed to pull one life ring from the water that did belong to the ship. as we speak crews aboard helicopters and coast guard vessels are now at the scene doing what they can to confirm that this debris belongs to the ship, harris. >> wow. we've seen family members gathered who are waiting to hear any word. so hard for them. >> do these debris fields provide any clue as to what may have happened. >> the u.s. coast guard is adamant that these do not definitively prove what happened to the ship but it does validate that they are searching in the right area which really, harris, in the vast expanse of the ocean means everything. they reiterate that this debris could have easily fallen from the ship during the storm. if you look at this satellite loop the white arrow is an approximate last known location of the ship. it's in the middle of hurricane joaquin at the height of a category 4 storm. it left jacksonville en route to san wajuan. the ship lost power. it was leaning 15 degrees. it

the trap served >>> rescuers from sea world in the coast guard teamed up to rescue a humpback whale that became tangled in a lobster not off the coast of san diego. the trap served as an anchor weighing the animals down. they say this particular rescue effort was challenging. >> there's all sorts of entanglement, some with gil nets, some with long lines, you've got hooks all over. it's a dangerous situation. >> the team was eventually able to free the distressed whale. they used gps tracking to keep an eye on the whale. >>> investigators are trying to determine why a tour boat sank off the coast of british columbia killing five people. as don champion tells us, the search for survivors continued through the night. >> reporter: canadian coast guard crews searched through the night for people missing after a well botching -- whale watching boat sank. photos show the moment the 65 foot boat, leviathan 2, slipped into the sea after making a mayday call. witnesses say there was no time to put on lifejackets before the boat capsized. 27 people were on board. >> the numbers of survivors are goi

tonight, we're with the coast guard. >>> survivor story. the student that made it out alive from the campus mass shooting. the hero that shielded her from the bullets. plus, the veteran that jumped into the line of fire speaks out. and new details about the gunman's final moments. >> >>. >> killer coverup? the 13-year-old on a dark road. the fake accident to throw off police. how police may have cracked the >>> and, bear scare. a video of a pint-sized pup taking on two bears. showing it's not how big the dog is in the fight, it's how big the fight is in the dog. >>> good evening. thanks for joining us on this sunday. let get right to the breaking a coastal storm in the east shattering records. historic rain levels, and devastatedef devastating flooding. and in south carolina tonight, a state of emergency. the roof of this building in columbia collapsing. cars flooded to their roofs. and firefighters rescuing people trapped in their vehicles. four have been killed since thursday, and the rain still coming down. and there's the storm at its p

the coast guard believes the ship sank. as to its location and the possibility of survivors is something we are waiting to hear about. the coast guard will be taking questions live in miami. . (0209fox555a.ecl) martha: any minute now we expect to hear from coast guard officials in miami, officials now confirming that they have come to the conclusion that the alfaro has sunk. that cargo ship lost contact enroute from florida to puerto rico during hurricane joaquin that it set out on friday: there were 33 crew members onboard. we're going to keep an eye on the news conference, and we will let you know if there is new information that comes out of that. >>> and in the meanwhile, search and rescue operations are underway in south carolina as days and days of torrential rain, look at the scene in the streets here, historic flooding. emergency responders conducting door-to-door searches, they are looking for anybody who may have been trapped after the weekend deluge forced hundreds of air and water rescues. what dramatic scenes c

what do you hear from the coast guard in. >> the u.s. coast guard says they found some items in and around the last location of the missing cargo ship. two life rings have been spotted in the water as well as a life jacket and oil sheen and cargo container. the u.s. coast guard, though, tells fox news they cannot confirm yet if they belong to the cargo ship el faro. this comes after last night's discovery of a life ring confirmed to be from el faro found 75 miles northeast of the ship's last known location. the white arrow shows the last known location as hurricane roy keen slammed the area. this is the fourth day of the search, so far the coast guard has covered 30,000 square miles of ocean, but the search conditions have been very challenging thanks to hurricane joaquin. 100-mile-per-hour hurricane force winds, 30 to 40 foot waves, one of the search planes yesterday suffered damage to its interior panels flying near the eye of the storm. today presents the best hope of finding the ship and its 33 crew members. >> if the ship is out the

the coast guard says they've done all they can to find survivors. >> i know that the coast guard, along with our brother in the navy and air force as well as the commercial tugs that were out there helping us search did all they could in this search effort. they did all they could. >> we know that there are reports that this vessel has sunk in deep water. there are rovs remotely operated vehicles that are capable of being operated down to these deaths. >>> so far search crews have only found one body in a survival suit. then again the coast guard will be stopping their search for survivors within the next few hours. in the wroal controlroom, elizabeth noreika, 7news. >>> also on 7, a teenager accused in the brutal murder of his math teacher at danvers high school going on trial. jury selection getting underway today. chism was 14 years old at the time of the murder. he is being tried as an adult. jonathan hall was there today and has more on the defense strategy. >> this murder really shook the northshore to the core when it happened in 2013. now the trial's officially underway, but the

the coast guard found the 220 the coast guard found the 220-square-mile area the ocean littered with styrofoam, wood and cargo. there were 33 members on board including four people from maine. this morning those family this morning those families are awaiting word on what happened. it is very difficult, but i have to tell you it is so supportive to be with people thing we are. that makes it if you can even say that a little less heart say that a little less heartwrenching. >>reporter: also this morning family members are questioning why the ship went right into the eye of the hurricane. the company said the captain makes those decisions which route, that is, the ship takes to the bahamas. hurricane joaquin is being bahamas. the coast guard flew over the hurricane hit. many homes there were damaged or under water. phone and electric is knocked out. a coalition of aid groups are working to bring relief to that region. our weather continues to track the storm, you can get the latest weather conditions on our weather app available for free on itunes and google play. >>> happening today,

coast guard took to the air to reach a neighborhood inundated with water.w rescued a woman and her 15-month-old girl. they came up together in the rescue basket. they're both doing well. and then there was this rescue. >> i can't see the tops of the cars. u mean it is crazy and these families are just now getting out of their homes which are inundated with water. >> a reporter talked about what she witnessed being on the scene of the rescue in progress at an apartment complex in columbia. you could hear the panic in her voice and she watched the people trying to escape. talking about how hard the first responders were working to get people to higher ground and spoke to a resident who pretty much lost everything. >> i heard they had to kick out windows to get the children from around the other corner. it's very bad. very bad down here. >> meantime, emergency officials are advising people in columbia to boil their drinking water and a curfew is in effect until later this morning. >>> take a look at this video. it shows a current that's so strong it is washing

water, and they're susceptible to the full fury of that hurricane. >> reporter: last night, the coast guard succeeded in rescuing 12 crew members on another cargo ship. this one was stranded in waters near haiti. >> we've just heard from the united states dos guard that they have suspended their search for the missing cargo ship. they usually search at night but due to the hurricane, they say it is just not safe enough. scott, the search will resume tomorrow morning at dawn with three c130 aircraft in the air. >> pelley: coast guard goes out when other ships are sinking. david begnaud, thanks very much. today, u.s. astronaut scott kelly sent this picture of joaquin from the space station. the hurricane has been thrashing the bahamas for two days. it's expected to track north over the weekend, and turn away from the u.s. coast. the east coast is already flooding from a separate nor'easter, and kris van cleave has that. >> reporter: the problem is too much water, punishing waves in new jersey, coastal flooding in ocean city, maryland, and streets underwater in charleston, south carolina. outs

the coast guard, combing 30,000 miles of open sea. and discovering a huge field of debris. linzie janis has the story. >> reporter: tonight, a break in the search for the missing cargo ship, the el faro. a 225-square-mile area of debris. and earlier in the day, we were with the coast guard as crews discovered a container and oil sheen floating in the ocean. >> it's common for ships transiting through a storm to lose things off their deck, off their topside decks. life rings, even a container, in heavy weather. it's not uncommon. >> reporter: late saturday, the coast guard pulling this life ring out of choppy waters. the 790-foot vessel was destined for puerto rico. making a distress call from crooked island, saying the ship had taken on water, and was listing 15 degrees. in an area known as the bermuda triangle. >> a ship is most vulnerable when they're without propulsion. >> reporter: among those onboard the ship, jeremy rheem. >> i'm very hopeful. >> reporter: as of sunset tonight, the coast guard has searched 70,000 square nautical miles of sea. >> thank you. >>> from ro

. >> 9:02 and we expect an update from coast guard official who have spent days searching for missing cargo ship that disappeared during the height of hurricane joaquin and we learned that one of the missing graduated from the cape and families gathering in florida waiting for word. at union hall in jacksonville, florida, families of loved ones at cargo ship lost at sea holding on to hope and each other and waiting and uncertainty very difficult but still hopefully the coast guard will find the whole crew alive and well. >> not sure if you're following the weather but we are headed into hurricane category three and last we checked winds are bad. love to everyone. >> that was the last time maine 34-year-old daniel danielle and made its way from jacksonville to puerto rico and never made it to its destination and all communication was lost thursday morning. >> blame to be done is on the hurricane, not the captain. the captain is looking out for his crew. >> now waiting with other families for answers in jacksonville and including another mother from maine deb roberts. roberts' son, 25-y