Police are now conducting a "search and recovery" mission for three persons who went missing during Hurricane Fabian.

The change - from "search and rescue" - is official acknowledgement that the three have more than likely perished.

"It is a search and recovery operation at this point," said Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith.

Constable Stephen Symons, 37, was the first confirmed casualty of Hurricane Fabian when his body was recovered from North Shore waters on Sunday.

Con. Symons was in a Police cruiser travelling west on the Causeway with two of his colleagues on Friday afternoon when the vehicle was lost. The other two colleagues were station duty officer Gladys Saunders and Nicole O'Connor. Another vehicle containing a civilian - Manuel Pacheco - was also swept into the sea.

"There's been a recovery operation since the latter stages of (Sunday). The discovery of Stephen Symons has assisted the search team to look at the grid they are operating on in terms of the search area."

Asked if the three were now presumed dead, Mr. Smith said that the search team was realistic but would not completely give up hope. "We have to look at the conditions that existed since Friday and the likelihood of survival in the ocean," he said.

"We've done a complete shoreline search in the whole Ferry Reach area, Castle Harbour area and the search was extended to the North Shore area. And as you know a body has been discovered in the water on the North Shore. So all those facts considered - we are very much in the search and recovery mode. You never give up hope but with each passing hour the team is more and more in a search and recovery mode given all those circumstances that are really apparent over the last 24 hours."

Mr. Smith said it would be several more months before a comprehensive report could be prepared for the Coroner.

He dismissed rumours that other bodies have been recovered or reported missing.

"The Causeway incident is the one we have been reporting on consistently and the outcome is as is now apparent. There are no other confirmed reports to my knowledge of any other individuals that are unaccounted for."