The severity of a marine disaster off Vancouver Island is far worse than first reported, according to internal coast guard communications obtained by CTV News.
The emails sent on Tuesday evening show the cargo ship Zim Kingston's owner underestimated the number of shipping containers that fell from the vessel during a storm.
Originally, the Canadian Coast Guard reported that 40 containers fell from the ship in heavy seas and high winds Friday, but now it appears there are more than 100 containers drifting off Vancouver Island.
"The owner now believes that 109 containers were lost in the initial event," one email says.
The email also says that only two of the containers are believed to have dangerous goods inside them.
In a situation update late Wednesday morning, the coast guard confirmed that more than 100 containers were lost.
"It has now been determined that 106 containers fell overboard, not 40 as originally estimated via aircraft observation shortly after the incident," the coast guard said.
The stricken Zim Kingston vessel remains anchored off Victoria.
'CONTAINERS WILL HAVE ALREADY SUNK OR WILL SINK'
Shortly after the containers slipped overboard, the vessel also suffered a serious fire inside containers on the ship. The fire continues to smoulder in containers at the bottom of a large stack.
The last time one of the drifting containers was spotted by a tracking flight was on Oct. 24 when the container was near Hesquiat Peninsula, northwest of Tofino, the communications show.
Due to vents on the containers that allow water in, the coast guard does not expect any of the boxes will be recovered.
“It is command speculation that containers will have already sunk or will sink," a coast guard email says. "Command speculation does not expect any containers to be found / recovered at this point."
The coast guard's unifed command now has a list of contents from all containers identified as having gone overboard.
Contents include Christmas decorations, sofas, poker tables, metal car parts, clothing, toys, yoga mats, stand-up paddleboards, industrial parts and other miscellaneous items.
More than 100 shipping containers fell from crippled cargo ship off B.C. coast - CTV Edmonton
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