ELEUTHERA, Bahamas (AP) — Hurricane Joaquin destroyed houses, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as it hurled torrents of rain across the Bahamas yesterday, while the US Coast Guard said it was searching for a cargo ship with 33 people aboard that went missing during the Category 4 storm.

The Coast Guard said the 735-foot ship named El Faro had taken on water and was listing at 15 degrees near Crooked Island, one of the islands most battered by the hurricane. Officials said the crew includes 31 US citizens and two from Poland.

“This vessel is disabled basically right near the eye of Hurricane Joaquin,” said Capt Mark Fedor. “We’re going to go and try and save lives. We’re going to push it to the operational limits as far as we can.”

Officials said they hadn’t been able to re-establish communication with the vessel, which was travelling from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Coast Guard said the crew earlier reported it had been able to contain the flooding.

Fedor said there were 20- to 30-foot waves in the area, and that heavy winds could have destroyed the ship’s communications equipment.

Messages left with Florida-based TOTE Services, the ship’s owner, were not immediately returned.

As the search continued, the US National Hurricane Center said Joaquin’s threat to the US East Coast was fading as new forecasts showed it likely to curve out into the Atlantic while moving north and weakening in coming days.

But the slow-moving storm continued to batter parts of The Bahamas, cutting communication to several islands, most of them lightly populated. There had been no reports of fatalities or injuries, said Capt Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

The hurricane center said parts of The Bahamas could see storm surge raising sea levels 6 to 12 feet above normal, with 12 to 18 inches (31 to 46 centimetres) of rain falling in the central Bahamas.