Disabled, Cruise, Ship, Triumph, Columbia - KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com |

COLUMBIA, La. (KNOE 8 News) - The disabled Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph is slowly being towed back to port.

It's an agonizing day for the 4,000 people on board, and the families waiting for them.

Among those stranded are people from right here in Northeast Louisiana.

Mallory Fatheree says the communication on the ship has been very poor from the beginning. She says family members are telling them they are arriving later before the ship even does.

Knifeworks in Columbia remains closed, after Fatheree and 18 of her fellow coworkers, and boss are stranded on the ship. Their boss took them on a cruise, as a work reward.

Fatheree says she waited in line four 4 hours just to get a hamburger. She says she isn't going hungry, there is one grill and other buffets that remain open.

At night just to get airflow, people are lining the halls with mattresses, others are even sleeping on the deck.

Fatheree says, "when you walk through the hallways its really disgusting cause there is just bags of trash and other nasty things everywhere. We've been going to bed basically when the sun goes down and we wake up right when it comes up just to feel safer."

Knifeworks in Columbia posted this comment on their website saying in part, "...The cruise ship we were on has had some mechanical problems, we will not be back into the states until later this week..."

Fatheree says they should be able to get off the ship later Thursday night. They plan on driving back to Louisiana, immediately.

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