HAGATNA, Guam — The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku.

The crew of the 145-foot (44-meter) dry cargo vessel, named the Mariana, notified the Coast Guard on April 15 that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Private Third Class Avery Tibbets said early Saturday morning.

But communications with the vessel were lost the afternoon of April 16 and a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board.

The aircraft had to return to Guam because of heavy winds, but the search efforts were expected to resume at first light, Tibbets said.

Super Typhoon Sinlaku began battering the Northern Mariana Islands earlier this week, causing damage on the islands of Tinian and Saipan and flash flooding in Guam, the site of several American military bases.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and several other federal agencies are ramping up their response to Typhoon Sinlaku as dangerous weather conditions ease and the islands’ shelter-in-place orders begin to lift, Robert Fenton, FEMA regional administrator for Region 9, which includes Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, said Friday.