The local Lake Charles TV guys were talking about many people on Crewboats in the channel. I find that hard to believe. When I worked offshore in the Gulf, the SOP was to get as far away as possible from a hurricane, and if you had to ride one out, go to open shallow water.
1:10 AM - The 1 AM position estimate out of NHC put the center about 30 miles southeast of Sabine Pass. Also, we just measured a gust to 71 knots here at the office, which we still believe was on the low side of accurate.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lch/temp/ritablog.htm
There were a couple hundred on those two DOD ships in Port of Beaumont.