As Hurricane Joaquin churns up the ocean off the East Coast, it’s not only recreational boaters and fishermen who have to worry about rough seas. First responders do, too.
Saturday morning, the Newport Fire Department responded to a report of an overturned boat near the Newport Bridge. As the Fire Department boat headed out to investigate, the crew encountered five to six-foot seas and thirty-knot winds.
The report turned out to be a false alarm – the boat in question was actually near the Jamestown Bridge and had been previously checked out by firefighters. After about an hour of searching along with seven or eight other vessels from other departments, no other boats or boaters in distress were found.
But firefighters still warned against going out on the water in these conditions.
“If you’re not an experienced boater, you can definitely get into a situation where you could roll over or swamp your boat,” Captain Stephen Knapman of the Newport Fire Department said.