"She said the water pipes are breaking and toilets are overflowing, and there's feces all over the floor," Brent Nutt said.
CNN reported that the "Carnival Triumph" is just beginning to be towed back to Texas after an engine fire stranded it about 150 miles off the Mexican coastline on Sunday. It is expected to return to port on Thursday.
Nutt, whose wife and sister-in-law are onboard, said his wife told him she was fearful for her life at one point.
"When she first called me on Sunday evening around 6:30, she was crying," Brent Nutt said. "All she could say is, she did not want to die. She said the ship was leaning pretty bad over to the side, and that's all she could think about, whether they were all gonna die."
Though no injuries were reported and the fire was put down, passengers reported "sewage running down the walls and floors" and being asked to relieve themselves in plastic bags or in the shower to compensate for the loss of working toilets.
"They're sleeping on the decks, they're sleeping out on their balconies and all, with blankets and all, trying to make tents and everything, just trying to get some air," Nutt said.
Officials with the Carnival cruise line told CNN that food had been brought in from two other ships to keep passengers from starving. But according to Nutt, the meals aren't being rationed.
"It's kind of a first-come, first-serve [arrangement]," he said. "The first person in line, he can eat all the food that he wants to. And then the last person in line, they kind of get whatever is left over. My wife, she only got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bottle of water within a day and a half."
Watch Nutt relay his wife's description of the deteriorating conditions aboard her cruise, aired Tuesday on CNN, below.
unfortunate name "nutt"