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2 Holland America crew members die during “incident” on cruise ship
Two crew members on a Holland America cruise ship died during an “incident” in the ship’s engineering space, the cruise line said.
The unidentified crew members died Friday while the Florida-based Nieuw Amsterdam was at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, Holland America said in a statement.
Authorities were notified and the cause of the accident is being investigated, the cruise line said.
“The safety, security and welfare of all guests and crew are the company’s absolute priority,” the cruise line said. The company also noted reports that these crew members perished in a shipboard fire are not accurate.
The cruise line did not offer any further details about the crew members, nor which agency was handling the investigation. The ship set sail out of Fort Lauderdale on March 16 for a seven-night trip.
Crew members were being offered counseling.
“All of us at Holland America Line are deeply saddened by this incident and our thoughts and prayers are with our team members’ families at this difficult time,” the statement said.
Crew member deaths are relatively rare. Researchers at Bowling Green State University found between 2000 and 2019, there were 623 reported deaths on cruise ships, and 89% of those deaths were passengers while 11% of those were crew members.
During the pandemic, four crew members were killed by non-coronavirus causes on cruise ships with workers stranded onboard.
Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city largely cut off Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and cellphone service, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that left an unknown number dead and countless worried relatives unable to reach loved ones.
In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed on Saturday as floodwaters began to recede and reveal the extent of damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state. Cooper said two people died in his state, Helene killed at least 52 people across multiple states.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at Asheville’s Mission Hospital. She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her to safety.
“It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes,” Barfield said.
Erik Verduzco / AP
Early on Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they didn’t have electricity, and the few that were open had hourlong lines wrapped around the block. The hub of tourism and arts, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually still after floodwaters swamped neighborhoods known for drawing visitors including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, which is home to numerous galleries, shops and breweries.
More than 700,000 power customers were without power across North Carolina, including 160,000 in Buncombe County. Interstate 40 and I-26 were impassible in multiple locations, and a state transportation department map showed that most routes into Asheville and across much of the mountains were snarled. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation posted on social media on Saturday afternoon that “all roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed.”
In Asheville, there was no cellular service and no timeline for when it would be restored.
“We have had some loss of life,” County Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to report any specifics. Officials have been hindered in contacting next of kin by the communications outages. Asheville police instituted a curfew from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The curfew is to ensure the public’s safety and will be in effect until further notice,” police said.
Asheville transit services were also suspended, police said. The city advised residents to boil “all water used for human consumption,” as there was at least one significant water line break during the storm. Many residents might not be getting water or reduced or no pressure water.
Jones said the area experienced a cascade of emergencies that included heavy rain, high winds and mudslides. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm but its magnitude was beyond what they could have imagined.
“It’s not that we (were) not prepared, but this is going to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say this caught us off-guard would be an understatement.”
Erik Verduzco / AP
Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son, or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was in Atlanta,” she said on Saturday. “The storm was just hitting her in Asheville, and she said it sounded really scary outside.”
Cavanaugh said her sister had no idea how bad the storm would be there. She told Cavanaugh she was going to head out to check on guests at a vacation cabin “and that’s the last I heard of her. I’ve been texting everyone that I know with no response. All phone calls go directly to voicemail.”
The CEO of a hospital operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in May will step down after failing to testify before a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of some 30 hospitals around the country. The Texas-based company’s troubled recent history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials in New England, where some of its hospitals are located.
A spokesperson for de la Torre told the Associated Press Saturday that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.”
A CBS News investigation that spanned nearly two years documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
In August, the company closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said earlier this month that Congress “will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America.”
De la Torre’s resignation is effective Oct. 1. The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that was intended to hold him in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a committee.
The Senate panel has been looking into Steward’s bankruptcy. De la Torre did not appear before it despite being issued a subpoena. The resolution refers the matter to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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