It is uncertain when secretary Diane Grappe will return to work, but her ship is due to arrive in Mobile, Ala. Thurs. 14. | ashley collins photo
School secretary Diane Grappe left Galveston, Texas on the carnival cruise ship Triumph Feb. 7. What was supposed to be a fun four-day trip with her Bunco group is now top national news.
Grappe and her seven friends were due to arrive back in Galveston 8 a.m. Monday, but because of a fire in the ship’s engine room, the Triumph’s 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew members are currently stranded about 150 miles off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing system extinguished the fire before anyone was injured, but the ship itself is in critical condition.
The first of two tugboats has reportedly arrived and will tow the ship to Alabama instead of Mexico, which was the previous plan, but was changed because the ship had drifted. The Triumph is due to arrive Feb. 14.
Her daughter and 2002 high school graduate Leslie Grappe Warford said her mother’s room is flooded, likely with sewage, and the lights and bathrooms in passengers’ cabins do not work. Many passengers are sleeping in tents on the decks because their rooms are too dark and hot.
“At this point, there is sewage running down the walls and the halls because however they keep the boat steady isn’t working so the boat is tilted. It’s making things overflow,” Warford said.
Warford said she receives little contact from her mother because there is no electricity to keep Grappe’s phone charged.
“My dad talked to her yesterday afternoon, but we get very little contact because she doesn’t want her battery to die on her phone,” Warford said. “It’s just like ‘I’m alive. I’m okay’ and that’s it.”
In addition to no air conditioning or electricity, the plumbing has not worked and passengers have been given buckets to dispose of body waste.
Latest reports claim there now is some restored toilets in some public areas and cabins, cold water for showers and some elevators are working, according to CNN.
Bottle water has been flown to the ship, but Warford said food is running short.
“They don’t have a lot of food so it is being rationed and they have to wait in line for food for about three hours to get the food that they get,” Warford said.
Because of the lack of resources, the frustration of the situation and perhaps pure boredom, many of the passengers have become angry.
“She [Grappe] said people are kind of starting to go nuts, like screaming and yelling at the staff there,” Warford said.
The sick and elderly are suffering, but anyone with a serious emergency can be flown out by helicopter for medical attention. Warford said she is worried about her mother’s health.
“There are patches you can put on that deliver a small amount of medicine [got sea sickness] and those only last for 72 hours. She had two of them. So I know now that she is out,” Warford said. “That is a big concern. With the smells, people aren’t showering. I know she must be getting sick.”
The ship is due to arrive in Mobile, Ala. on Valentine’s Day where passengers will fly to Houston, Texas for customs before riding a bus to their intended destination, Galveston. From Galveston, Grappe’s Bunco group will drive back to Little Rock.
“They are getting refunded for this cruise, and then supposedly they are getting a voucher for a free cruise,” Warford said. “But that will be the big question, will she ever go on a cruise again?”
