NewsWhore
12-06-2011, 01:20 PM
While some US Coast Guard and Dominican Navy units continue to carry out search and rescue operations, Civil Defense units were brought ashore due to dangerous sea conditions. At least 27 people are still missing out of a group of 95 that disappeared off the north east coast on Sunday, after the small boat in which they were traveling to Puerto Rico capsized after hitting a reef. The Civil Defense authorities issued a report in Nagua yesterday.
The local director of the relief agency, Minerva Santos, said that the Civil Defense has suspended the search for survivors due to poor weather along the coast. Nonetheless, the Dominican Navy has continued search and rescue efforts. Up until now, they have only recovered the bodies of travelers Jose Augusto Polanco, Edwin Frannier de la Cruz and Pedro Ramirez Sanchez. Santos revealed that one of the survivors told her that some 65 people managed to get away from the wrecked boat alive off the coast of Matancitas. The officials said that at least 27 travelers did not manage to reach the shore because of the large number of reefs in the area.
Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena appointed a commission yesterday to go to Nagua and investigate the circumstances of the shipwreck and establish responsibilities, saying that the Justice Department will act as required by the law in these cases. The commissioners are the national director of Prosecution of Drug Trafficking and Complex Crimes, Frank Soto, the prosecutor general of the Appeals Court in San Francisco de Macoris, Amado Jose Rosa, and the District Attorney in Nagua, Agustina Castillo. At the same time, Navy spokesman Antonio Cabral Fani reported that Navy chief of staff Nicolas Cabrera Arias has ordered an investigation of the sailors who were on duty in Matancitas in order to establish whether or not they acted in complicity with the trip organizers. A report in El Nuevo Diario said that the boat's captain, known as "Chichi" has been identified as from the town of Miches. It was said that he survived the shipwreck, and the authorities are looking for him.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
The local director of the relief agency, Minerva Santos, said that the Civil Defense has suspended the search for survivors due to poor weather along the coast. Nonetheless, the Dominican Navy has continued search and rescue efforts. Up until now, they have only recovered the bodies of travelers Jose Augusto Polanco, Edwin Frannier de la Cruz and Pedro Ramirez Sanchez. Santos revealed that one of the survivors told her that some 65 people managed to get away from the wrecked boat alive off the coast of Matancitas. The officials said that at least 27 travelers did not manage to reach the shore because of the large number of reefs in the area.
Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena appointed a commission yesterday to go to Nagua and investigate the circumstances of the shipwreck and establish responsibilities, saying that the Justice Department will act as required by the law in these cases. The commissioners are the national director of Prosecution of Drug Trafficking and Complex Crimes, Frank Soto, the prosecutor general of the Appeals Court in San Francisco de Macoris, Amado Jose Rosa, and the District Attorney in Nagua, Agustina Castillo. At the same time, Navy spokesman Antonio Cabral Fani reported that Navy chief of staff Nicolas Cabrera Arias has ordered an investigation of the sailors who were on duty in Matancitas in order to establish whether or not they acted in complicity with the trip organizers. A report in El Nuevo Diario said that the boat's captain, known as "Chichi" has been identified as from the town of Miches. It was said that he survived the shipwreck, and the authorities are looking for him.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)