MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search Wednesday for 23 people who, among a group of Cuban migrants, attempted to cross the Florida Straits as Hurricane Ian made its way past the Florida Keys.
The U.S. Border Patrol said four migrants swam to shore on Stock Island in the Lower Keys around 7 a.m.
The group told agents they were with 23 other people on a boat, which sank in the storm, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Nicole Groll told the Miami Herald.
Among those searching for the missing is a helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater temporarily assigned to the Keys because of Ian, Groll said.
The assignment is risky, Groll added, since winds from Ian as high as 30 mph were still impacting the Lower Keys a day after the storm’s center made its way toward the Florida peninsula.
“Our crews took a calculated risk to brave the Tropical Storm Force winds going through the Keys on the chance of people being alive in the water and being able to bring them home,” Grolll said.
