LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After waiting for Tropical Storm Karen to pass, the search for a Louisville woman in the Virgin Islands is expected to resume on Thursday.
According to the Virgin Islands National Park, 48-year-old Lucy Schuhmann has been missing since September 19. The search for the woman was temporarily paused as Tropical Storm Karen hit the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
"The weather conditions are such that it's not safe to continue ground, air or marine search operations at this time," Thomas Kelley, with the Virgin Islands National Park Service, said.
The search is expected to resume and expand on Thursday, according to the park's Facebook page. Technical climbing experts from other national park units will assist local park staff in the search. Park staff have also requested a small number of island residents to help.
Additional hiking trails, roadsides, and shorelines will be searched and volunteers will be led by park staff during the ground search.
Schuhmann never returned to her vacation rental in Coral Bay on St. John Island. Her bag was left in the rental and her rental jeep was later found at a parking area near in the Virgin Islands National Park. Search and rescue teams found her backpack on a trail as well.
"We would like to re-double our efforts to ensure areas we've searched don't have any further clues or information about the whereabouts of Lucy," Kelley said.
SCUBA divers, snorkelers and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter searched the area, but authorities said there was no sign of Schuhmann. Kelley described the area where she went missing as "remote" with challenging terrain.
"That area of the park is the windward side. It's got a lot of cliffs, high wave energy, rocky shoreline and it's difficult to access and to search either by land or by vessel," Kelley said. "We are hopeful that we'll find Lucy and this is still a search operation not a recovery operation," Kelley said.
Kelley and others on the island say it is "extremely rare" for someone to go missing in the park for more than 24 hours.
Agencies involved in the search hope the efforts will resume again by midday Wednesday after tropical storm Karen passes the U.S. Virgin Islands.
People with information are asked for call (866) 995-8467, option 2.
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