Families of La. oil rig blast survivors wait to see loved ones; search on for 11 missing

Families of Louisiana oil rig blast survivors wait

PORT FOURCHON, La. — Families eagerly waited to welcome survivors of a thunderous blast that rocked the oil platform they were aboard as Coast Guard rescuers combed Gulf of Mexico waters Thursday for signs of 11 missing from the still-burning rig.

About 100 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon when it blew Tuesday made it onto a supply boat. The boat reached shore Thursday morning, according Dana Eugene, the sister of Kevin Eugene, one of the survivors. Seventeen people were injured and taken to hospitals, four critically, in what could be one of the nation’s deadliest offshore drilling accidents of the past half-century.

Eugene said before the workers can be reunited with about five or six waiting families, they must be checked by doctors in Port Fourchon, where the boat docked. Afterward, they were expected to be taken to a hotel about 70 miles north in suburban New Orleans where more families were waiting.

“We just want to see him,” Eugene said.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard rescuers in two cutters searched overnight for the missing, though no one had been spotted, said Lt. Sue Kerver. The air search was suspended until first light, she said.

The rig, which is owned by Transocean Ltd., was under contract to the oil giant BP and doing exploratory drilling. Company officials would not comment on the survivors reaching shore or their conditions.

Carrol Moss, 33, of Jayess, Miss., was waiting at the hotel for her husband.

She said Transocean notified her about the explosion early Wednesday. Nine hours later, the company said her 37-year-old crane operator husband, Eugene Moss, was safe.

“That was pure freaking hell,” Moss said late Wednesday. “To have your kids look at you and say, ‘Mama, my daddy may not come home.’” The Mosses have four children.

Authorities could not say when the flames might die out on the 400-by-250-foot rig, which is roughly twice the size of a football field, according the Transocean’s website. A column of boiling black smoke rose hundreds of feet over the Gulf of Mexico as fireboats shot streams of water at the blaze. Officials said the damage to the environment appeared minimal so far.

Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean, said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes the equipment. But precisely what went wrong was under investigation.

A total of 126 workers were aboard. Seventy-nine were Transocean workers, six were BP employees and 41 were contracted. The Coast Guard said the 17 taken by air or sea to hospitals suffered burns, broken legs and smoke inhalation.

Company officials had not identified the missing workers. The Neshoba County Democrat newspaper in Philadelphia, Miss., reported that the county sheriff’s office notified a Sandtown family that a relative was among the missing.

One of the deadliest U.S. offshore drilling accidents was in 1964, when a catamaran-type drilling barge operated by Pan American Petroleum Corp. near Eugene Island, about 80 miles off Louisiana, suffered a blowout and explosion while drilling a well. Twenty-one crew members died. The deadliest offshore drilling explosion was in 1988 about 120 miles off Aberdeen, Scotland, in which 167 men were killed.

Rose said the Deepwater Horizon crew had drilled the well to its final depth, more than 18,000 feet, and was cementing the steel casing at the time of the explosion.

“They did not have a lot of time to evacuate. This would have happened very rapidly,” he said.

According to Transocean’s website, the rig was built in 2001 in South Korea and is designed to operate in water up to 8,000 feet deep, drill 5½ miles down, and accommodate a crew of 130. It floats on pontoons and is moored to the sea floor by several large anchors.

Workers typically spend two weeks on the rig at a time, followed by two weeks off. Offshore oil workers typically earn $40,000 to $60,000 a year — more if they have special skills.

Working on offshore oil rigs is a dangerous job but has become safer in recent years thanks to improved training, safety systems and maintenance, said Joe Hurt, regional vice president for the International Association of Drilling Contractors.

Since 2001, there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries and 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf, according to the federal Minerals Management Service.

Despite the long wait for word her husband was safe, Moss said she’s not upset and that the company didn’t want to give bad information.

She said her husband has been working in the oil industry most of his life and that even though he tells her it’s safe, she can’t help but worry.

“I’m a wife and a mother. Of course I worry,” she said.

Associated Press Writers Kevin McGill and Alan Sayre contributed to this report.