- A "freak wave" more than 70 feet high slammed
a luxury cruise ship steaming for New York yesterday, flooding cabins,
injuring passengers and forcing the liner to stop for emergency repairs.
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- The Norwegian Dawn, an opulent ocean liner almost 1,000
feet long, limped into Charleston, S.C., yesterday afternoon after it hit
vicious seas in an overnight storm off Florida - then was creamed by the
rogue wave after dawn.
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- "[My room] was destroyed by stuff getting thrown
all over the place," passenger James Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., told
NBC News before embarking on the 12-hour drive home because he didn't want
to set foot on the ship again.
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- "It was pure chaos."
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- The ship, which sailed from New York last Sunday with
2,500 passengers, had been due back today.
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- It weathered most of a wild storm that featured gale-force
winds and choppy seas. But then the vessel, longer than three football
fields, was suddenly smacked by the "freak wave," said Norwegian
Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison. It broke a pair of windows and flooded
62 cabins, she said.
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- "The sea had actually calmed down when the wave
seemed to come out of thin air at daybreak," Robison said. "Our
captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he never saw anything like it."
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- The tidal wave wrecked windows on the ninth and 10th
floors and wreaked havoc below decks, destroying furniture, the onboard
theater, and a store that sold expensive gifts.
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- It also injured four passengers and terrified scores
more, many of whom lost belongings and were being flown back to New York
early this morning.
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- "My daughter said people were freaking out,"
said Mel Blanck, 74, whose daughter, Caren Hogan, 42, of Matawan, N.J.,
was vacationing aboard with her family. "She said some doors were
ripped off and broken glass was everywhere."
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- In a message Hogan left on her parents' voice mail, she
said her ship "feels like the Titanic" and described "water
running everywhere, with people getting hurt and panicking."
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- "She felt lucky that she and her children weren't
hurt," said Blanck, whose daughter had called from South Carolina
last night. "She's calm now, but she said it was a nightmare."
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- The floating city of a ship, which was commissioned in
2002, left New York a week ago for Orlando, Miami and the Bahamas. It had
started heading home when it ran into the wicked weather.
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- During the storm, one frightened passenger called a relative
who relayed the information to the Coast Guard, which escorted the ship
into Charleston yesterday.
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- "The ocean is unforgiving; it doesn't care who is
out there," said Petty Officer Bobby Nash of the Coast Guard in Florida.
"This could have happened to anyone."
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- Repairs were done last night, and the ship resumed it's
voyage around midnight after a team of Coast Guard inspectors gave it approval.
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- Many of the Norwegian Dawn's passengers remained on the
ship while it was readied for the sea again, Robison said. The battered
vessel is expected to return to New York tomorrow.
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- All passengers would be given a partial refund, a credit
for a future trip and access to the ship's open bar, Robison said.
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- All contents © 2005 Daily News, L.P.
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