Downriver Women Among Thousands Stuck On Cruise Ship

The 952-foot Carnival Splendor cruise ship is limping back to port under tow. More than 3,000 passengers saw their relaxing vacation come to an end with an engine room fire and power outage. Angela Evans of Wyandotte and a friend were among them.

Now that the ship is in cell phone range in the Pacific, the 36-year-old Evans was able to call her boyfriend, Greg Alexander.

"From what I can tell she's okay, she's doing okay emotionally. It's just a horrible, stressful situation all-in-all. I mean, her cabin's in complete darkness when they go in there," Alexander told WWJ Newsradio 950.

The 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members were not hurt and the fire was put out, but the vessel had no air conditioning, hot water or telephone service.

"They were in complete power loss Monday, before they were able to restore power, from what she told me.  They didn't have running water for like two hours until they got that running and the toilets were all backing up from people using the toilets, stuff like that. But they rectified the situation," Alexander  said.

The Mexican Riviera-bound ship, which was drifting about 55 miles off the northern Baja California coast, was in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard, which deployed aircraft and ships along with the U.S. Navy and Mexican Navy.

The Navy has been dropping non-perishable food supplies to those on board, including SPAM and Pop Tarts.  Thousands of pounds of food had been delivered by Tuesday night.

"The food situation was horrible to begin with. There was no direction when to get food or how to get food. She said her and her friend Natalie Martinez, who's on the boat with her, waited in an hour-and a-half line to get a sandwich. And, by the time they both got up there, was no meat on any of the sandwiches," Alexander said.

The vessel was expected to arrive in San Diego Thursday night. Evans and Martinez, who is also from Downriver, are  due back in Metro Detroit this weekend.

"We know this has been an extremely trying situation for our guests and we sincerely thank them for their patience," Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill said in the statement. "Conditions on board the ship are very challenging and we sincerely apologize for the discomfort and inconvenience our guests are currently enduring."

Carnival said it will issue refunds to passengers and give them vouchers for a future cruise.

(Copyright 2010 WWJ Radio.  All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)