'Deadliest Catch' Stars Scrambling to Shore Before Storm
Jonathan Hillstrand on the calm before storm.
— -- Fishermen famous for appearing on a popular reality show are scrambling to get back to shore as a massive storm barrels through the Bering Sea near Alaska.
Jonathan Hillstrand, who stars on Discovery's "Deadliest Catch," told ABC News today via satellite phone that his crew is furiously pulling up their crab pots and getting the Time Bandit ready to head to Dutch Harbor, which is about 200 miles away.
"We're trying to get our gear out as fast as humanly possible," he said. "It's up to God now whether we beat it or not. Hopefully, we'll be in safe harbor before that hits."
The storm, once classified as a typhoon, is expected to hit western Alaska today or tomorrow before it sends an arctic freeze through the rest of the United States. The storm's winds have reached 180 miles per hour -- strong enough to potentially sink a boat, Hillstrand said.
Some of the other fishing boats in the Bering Sea plan to attempt to ride the storm out, he added, but he and co-captain Andy Hillstrand, who is also his brother, plan to make the journey to the harbor as soon as they can. The trip will take around 30 hours. The Time Bandit only travels up to 8 knots per hour.
So far skies are clear, and while that could change any time, Hillstrand says he's not even sure the storm will hit their area.
"They're pretty good at tracking them, but it's such a huge vast area out here," he said. "You don't know where it's going to get hit."
The storm is expected to be far stronger than Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the northeast in 2012.
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