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Action News Investigates: Path of El Faro and strength of Joaquin

By Paige Kelton, Action News Jax
By Paige Kelton, Action News Jax

It was an eerie email sent from by El Faro crew member Danielle Randolph to her mother as her ship lost contact.

“We are heading straight into it, category 3, last we checked winds are super bad and seas arent' great, love to everyone," the email read.

Action News Jax searched several online databases and found a marine traffic timeline of the vessel shows at 11:23 p.m. Wednesday night, four hours before the last signal, El Faro was traveling at more than 20 knots.

According to our Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh, that's the exact time the National Weather Service released its updated track of Hurricane Joaquin a track that showed a strengthening storm drifting closer to them.

“The reality was it was a Cat. 4 hurricane, pretty much on top of them," Buresh said.

At 4:01 a.m., the ships speed dropped to 19 knots and the signal was lost.

A veteran naval operations officer told Action News Jax he was stunned that the ship had navigated so close to the storm.

At 11 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Center updated its storm track, Joaquin was strengthening and heading toward El Faro. By around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, the ship lost power, was taking on water and listing to one side.

"They're in the eye wall, the most violent part of the hurricane with gusts of 130 to 150 miles per hour," Buresh said.

Those hurricane force winds would have continued to batter the ship and any surviving crew members for up to 48 hours.

The evolution of hurricane Joaquin is a lesson in maritime safety and the importance of pinpointing every movement of a storm.

WJAX

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