Teams search for 20 people whose boat sank off Florida as Hurricane Ian loomed

A hunt is nether mode for much than 20 radical disconnected the seashore of Florida aft their vessel sank soon earlier Hurricane Ian made landfall connected Wednesday.

Four Cuban migrants swam to enactment successful the Florida Keys and 3 others were rescued from the water aft their vessel sank connected Wednesday, but others are inactive missing, officials said.

The 4 Cubans reached Stock Island, conscionable eastbound of Key West, and reported their vas sank due to the fact that of inclement weather, according to a tweet from Walter N Slosar, main patrol cause with US Customs and Border Protection.

The US Coast Guard initiated a hunt for 23 passengers and managed to find 3 survivors astir 2 miles (3km) southbound of the land chain, officials said.

“Our crews took a calculated hazard to brave the tropical tempest unit winds going done the Keys connected the accidental of radical being live successful the h2o and being capable to bring them home,” said petty serviceman Nicole Groll, a coastguard spokeswoman.

The survivors were taken to a section infirmary for symptoms of exhaustion and dehydration. Air crews continued to hunt for the remaining migrants.

Hurricane Ian made landfall connected Florida’s westbound seashore connected Wednesday day arsenic a class 4 tempest with 150mph upwind and tempest surges of up to 18ft. In the past 24 hours the tempest has carved a way crossed the Gulf of Mexico, knocking retired each powerfulness successful Cuba and leaving a way of demolition with convulsive winds and flooding erstwhile it deed the land connected Tuesday.

The tempest made landfall arsenic a class 3 tempest connected the island’s occidental end, devastating Pinar del Río province, wherever overmuch of the baccy utilized for Cuba’s cigars is grown.

State media reported 2 deaths successful the province: a pistillate killed by a falling partition and different by a collapsed roof. The section authorities presumption TelePinar reported dense harm astatine the main infirmary successful Pinar del Río city, tweeting photos of collapsed ceilings and downed trees. By aboriginal Wednesday, the state energy supplier said it had begun to reconstruct power.

The hurricane deed Cuba astatine a clip of dire economical crisis. Blackouts and long-running shortages of food, medicine and substance were apt to complicate efforts to retrieve from Ian.

On Tuesday, 7 migrants from Cuba were taken into custody aft they made it to enactment successful Pompano Beach, Florida, US authorities said.

“Do not hazard your beingness by attempting this travel astatine sea. Storm surge on with King tide tin make treacherous oversea conditions adjacent aft a tempest passes,” officials said connected Twitter connected Tuesday erstwhile announcing those detentions. King tides are exceptionally precocious and tin origin tidal flooding.