HOUSTON (KTRK) — The search is still on for one of five people on board a tugboat that sank overnight in the Houston Ship Channel.
“We have boats and helicopters out searching. The Houston Fire Department has boats, Houston Port Authority, Houston Police Department, and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office has boats standing by to assist,” said Captain James Whitehead with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard responded with two boats and a helicopter last night in the search for the five people who went down with the JR Nichols, a 56-foot tugboat, in the ship channel near the Sims Bayou turning basin.
A Lyondell rescue team pulled four people from the water, who were then taken to a local hospital and have since been released.
The search continues for the one person still missing. The tugboat that sank is a Kinder-Morgan vessel and it sank on its way to the facility. The Houston Police Department dive team has joined in the search of the submerged vessel.
