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At least one person has died after a patch of severe weather disrupted the Dauphin Island Regatta Saturday afternoon, leaving more than 100 sailors to struggle with harsh winds and rain.
At least one person was confirmed dead, said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, but he did not know the cause.
"Apparently there were a number of vessels that became distressed, either capsized or what have you. They were scattered anywhere from Dauphin Island Bridge all the way out into Mobile Bay and across to Fort Morgan. It was a wide area," Collier said.
"When the storm came through the sailboats were in varying places -- all the way from Dauphin Island to Middle Bay Lighthouse."
Many needed to be pulled from the water after their boats capsized. The U.S. Coast Guard was still searching for several missing boaters around Mobile Bay Saturday evening.
Richard Mather, 52, of Mobile, was aboard a 39-foot O'Day sailboat along with a crew of seven people, when he saw two boats collide. They had heard about the forecast of thunderstorms, "but we were not prepared for a gale," Mather said, "which is almost like a 30-minute hurricane."
They were not participating in the race, and were able to pull three people onto the vessel about two miles north of the Dauphin Island Bridge. None of the people appeared injured. "They were exhausted but they were fine," he said. "Their boats sunk so fast that they didn't have time to grab life preservers."
Coast Guard officials said they responded to a report of multiple capsized vessels around 4:30 p.m. Two response boats, an airplane and two helicopters were deployed to search for the missing people.
"There wasn't a clear number how many people were in the water or missing," said Carlos Vega, a Coast Guard spokesperson. He said there were about 119 vessels and as many as 200 people participating in the race.
As of 11:40 p.m., four people were still unaccounted for, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The race was scheduled to start in the middle of the bay, north of the Middle Bay Lighthouse and east of the Mobile Bay Ship Channel. From there, they were to proceed to Dauphin Island, eventually ending the first leg of the course at the headquarters of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
Around 4 p.m., wind gusts as strong as 59 mph swept across areas of Fairhope, according to the National Weather Service. But forecasters predicted storms with the possibility of damaging winds around 60 mph in areas west of Interstate 65.
