The U.S. Coast Guard has located a life ring from a cargo ship that lost power and communications during Hurricane Joaquin and is now the subject of an intense search in the southeastern Bahamas.

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss says the life ring was 120 miles northeast of Crooked Island. That's about 70 miles northeast of the last known position of the El Faro before it lost contact with authorities with 33 people on board.

Doss says the crew of a C-130 airplane spotted the life ring Saturday and a helicopter crew confirmed it was from the El Faro. It has not been retrieved.

The Coast Guard and U.S. Navy have halted the search because of darkness and will resume Sunday.

The search area is vast and the effort is hampered by the fact that there are few vessels out there because of the rough weather, said Chris Lloyd, the operations manager of the Bahamas Air Sea and Rescue Association, which was not taking part in looking for the ship because the area is beyond its reach.

"The fact that there has been no communications is not good news," Lloyd said.

As the threat of the storm receded on a path that would take it away from the U.S. mainland, people in the southeastern Bahamas were in clean-up mode. Joaquin destroyed houses, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as it hurled torrents of rain.

There had been no reports of fatalities or injuries so far, said Capt. Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

Officials were investigating reports of shelters being damaged and flooded, as well as two boats with a total of five people who remained missing.