A Carnival cruise ship ran into a massive storm last week en route from the Bahamas to Charleston, South Carolina. The storm flooded the lower four levels of the ship, and caused panic for passengers when the ship flipped and flipped on its side during the night, making national headlines.
Bryan Rife, 47, of Belmont, was aboard the Carnival Sunshine, when the incident occurred.
Rife chronicled the storm’s events beginning the evening of Friday, May 26, and continuing through the morning of Saturday, May 26.
Friday, 3-3:30 pm
Rife was standing on the 10th floor Serenity Deck when the intercom rang to inform passengers that they should evacuate the upper deck level because the ship was heading into bad weather.
At this point, Rife said the sky was clear and blue, and he didn’t see any signs of bad weather. Within an hour of this message, the tide turned rough.
5 p.m
The boat began to hum more suddenly. As Rife and her husband, Shane Elks, walked the halls, she remembers hearing other passengers complaining of nausea. Rife added that his own wife was a bit seasick.
4-8 p.m
Somewhere in this timeframe, Rife and Elks went on deck to check the state of the sky and water.
“The difference is night and day,” Rife said. The sky near their position on the ship was bright blue. Ahead is a “wall of darkness.”
Despite the bad weather they were approaching, Rife said he wasn’t too worried about it at the time.
9:30 p.m
At this point, the wind was howling outside the balcony doors. The weather information shown on television showed the wind speed increasing and decreasing dramatically. At times, wind gusts reached 80 mph, according to Rife.
10:45 p.m
Around 10:45 p.m., Rife was thrown from his bed when what was thought to be a massive wave hit the ship. He could hear the other passengers screaming, and the sound of things breaking. Rife could not remember how long the ship remained in this inclined position, but said that, “it seemed like an eternity.”
With the ship in a sideways position, he got lifejackets for himself, and Elks.
“I thought we were going upside down,” he said.
Rife and his wife left their room to find the other half of their party. He recalled finding broken glass strewn around, a passenger stuck in an elevator, and another passenger thrown from his wheelchair, which was damaged by the shaking.
11:30 pm-5:00 am
For the rest of the night and into Saturday morning, Rife and Elks stayed in their room. The water remained choppy, and rain pelted the ceiling of the balcony doors, but the ship was never hit again with too much force, Rife said.
Saturday
A little after 6:15 a.m., Rife recalled that the intercom finally rang after complete silence from the ship’s crew during the night. The Carnival Sunshine departed around 5 p.m., and passengers disembarked an hour later.
Rife said he has three more cruises planned during the storm and is still planning to go on those trips.
“You can’t control the weather,” Rife said, though he wishes the ship’s crew had communicated with passengers during the storm, or even called to stay anchored where they were and wait. the passing of the storm before going to Charleston.
