Search continues for 19 Cuban migrants who braved Hurricane Ian to reach Florida Keys
Three Cuban migrants were rescued Wednesday night — who are believed to be among a group of 23 that went missing while trying to cross the Florida Straits as Hurricane Ian charged toward the state. The U.S. Coast Guard now is on the lookout for the missing 19 migrants.
The U.S. Border Patrol said four migrants swam ashore on Stock Island in the Lower Keys around 7 a.m. Wednesday as tropical storm and storm surge warnings remained in effect for the area. Another man was found in the area alive and with no medical concerns Thursday, said Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.
Damaging wind gusts up to 55 mph and a storm surge of up to five feet above normal high tides was forecast in the afternoon, the National Weather Service in Key West said.
The group that made it to shore told agents they left Matanzas on Friday with 23 other people on a boat, which sank in the storm, authorities told the Miami Herald.
Border Patrol noted three of the newly rescued migrants were treated at Lower Keys Medical Center for dehydration and exhaustion.
Hoffner said those found so far have been released to family, but there will be “follow-up action” with U.S. immigration officials. Although migrant landings are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, most of the thousands of recent arrivals to South Florida — in numbers not seen in almost a decade — have been sent back to Cuba.
Among those searching for the missing is a helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater temporarily assigned to the Keys because of Ian, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Nicole Groll told the Miami Herald 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,” Groll said.
Miami Herald staff writers Devoun Cetoute and Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.
