The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for 16 migrants who are still missing after their boat capsized off the Florida coast during Hurricane Ian. Two bodies had previously been recovered.
“Crews suspended the search for the 16 missing people pending new information,” the Coast Guard tweeted Sunday.
A boat carrying 27 Cuban migrants capsized and sank Wednesday just hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida.
Four of the migrants were able to swim to Stock Island, just east of Key West, the U.S. Border Patrol said. The Coast Guard said Thursday that a total of nine people had been safely located and rescued. On Friday, the Coast said that two bodies — one near Ocean Edge Marina and one in Boca Chica Channel — had been recovered.
“Taking to the sea any time carries significant risk,” Coast Guard Captain Robert Kinsey said in a statement Friday. “Taking to the sea during a hurricane is flat out reckless.”
The storm earlier in the week killed two people in Cuba and brought down the country’s electrical grid.
Ian then made landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida, on Wednesday as a major Category 4 storm — the second-strongest possible category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Stephen Smith contributed reporting.
