BRANSON, Mo. — Tia Coleman has always loved the water. She and 10 members of her family made plenty of memories playing in the pool at their Branson hotel while on vacation from Indiana. But when they took a boat tour on Table Rock Lake Thursday and the water started pouring in, Coleman didn't know what to do. She couldn't see. Water was rushing in. Soon she couldn't even feel her son who had been sitting next to her on the duck boat, an amphibious vessel that can travel on road and water. Coleman, who lost nine family members in the ship's capsizing, shared her story of survival Saturday afternoon at a news conference at the hospital where she's being treated. "I thought I was dead," she said, recounting the moment she was sucked under. "I didn't know how to get out." Coleman, sitting in a wheelchair and flanked by loved ones, said she didn't see a cloud in the sky when she boarded the Ride the Ducks boat with her family. Crew members told them a storm was heading toward the area but there didn't appear to be any danger. More:Officials say it could be a year before answers arise in duck boat accident in Branson, Missouri More:Here are the 17 victims of the Missouri duck boat tragedy Crew members told them about the life jackets, stored above their seats in three different sizes. "But don't worry," Coleman said the crew told the guests, "You won't need them." Even as the swells grew, she and her family didn't feel fear, and the crew, she says, never told them to put on the life jackets. It wasn't until water started making its way into the vessel that Coleman realized the danger they were in. Water splashed on her face. She couldn't see. Her family was gone. Then she hit her head. "I just remember, 'I got to get out. I got to get out,' " she said, adding she wasn't sure how she made it out of the vessel. "I just remember kicking and swimming." She fought to get to the surface but said she kept getting dragged back down. Soon she started praying: “I said Lord, please, let me get to my babies. I gotta get to my babies." More:Here are the 17 victims of the Missouri duck boat tragedy More:Officials say it could be a year before answers arise in duck boat accident She said that after a while she felt there was nothing left to do but give up her fight and let go, allowing God to take her. But that, she said, allowed her to float to the surface. Waves crashed over her face, but in between swallowing water she was able to scream out "Help!" while waving her hands. Passengers from a nearby boat, who Coleman called "angels," threw her life preservers and jumped in the water to help her and others. "When they pulled me up in the boat, I didn’t see any of my family," she said. "But I believe I survived by God." In total, she lost her husband, three children, her uncle, nephew, mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law. The Stone County Sherrif's Office released their names: Angela Coleman, Arya Coleman, Belinda Coleman, Evrin Coleman, Glenn Coleman, Horace Coleman, Maxwell Coleman and Reece Coleman. She described her love for each of them and how tough her new journey would be. Coleman said her home was always filled with people, and now her three children and husband were stolen from her. "I don’t know how I’m going to do it," she said. When the totality of the situation hit her, she told God, “If they don’t make it, Lord take me, too, there's no reason for me to be here.” Asked whether she was happy to be alive, she told a reporter, "I don't know yet, time will tell." She added: "The only thing I can think of is that God must have something for me. There's no way I should be here." Contributing: Wyatt D. Wheeler, Springfield News-Leader, who reported from Branson, Mo. Hayes reported from Washington.<doc-sep>The duck boat involved in the accident in Missouri that left 17 sightseers dead was not allowed to operate in water if winds clocked in at 35 mph or waves were higher than 2 feet, according to the vessel’s certificate of inspection that the US Coast Guard has released. “Vessel shall not be operated waterborne when winds exceed thirty-five (35) miles per hour, and/or the wave height exceeds two (2) feet,” according to the certificate, which was filed Feb. 7, 2017. The Coast Guard announced it has convened a formal Marine Board of Investigation into the July 19 accident involving a Ride the Ducks of Branson duck boat. The vessel sank at Table Rock Lake near Branson during a storm. Video and audio from the boat, recovered by divers, showed that the lake was calm when the boat entered the lake, but the weather suddenly turned violent and within minutes the vessel sank. The National Transportation Safety Board has said the wind speed at the time of the tragedy was more than 70 mph, just short of hurricane force. Weather forecasts had warned of an impending storm with winds possibly exceeding 60 mph. The wave height wasn’t known, but cellphone video shot by passengers on a nearby boat showed waves that appeared to be far greater than 2 feet high. An email message from the Associated Press seeking comment from Ripley Entertainment, the company that owns Ride the Ducks of Branson, was not returned. The Coast Guard said the Marine Board of Investigation is its highest level of investigation. The inquiry will be conducted by a five-member board. No timetable for the probe was released. “The Coast Guard will conduct a thorough and detailed investigation to identify all potential causal factors associated with this tragedy,” Capt. Wayne Arguin, chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation, said in the news release. In addition to the weather, the probe will look at regulatory compliance of the boat and crew member duties and qualifications, the Coast Guard said. The board also will examine whether misconduct, inattention, negligence or willful violation of the law were factors, as well as whether the Coast Guard and other governmental agencies provided adequate oversight. With Post wires<doc-sep>Today’s Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy<doc-sep>(CNN) — Tia Coleman, a survivor of the duck boat disaster in Missouri that claimed 17 lives, said Monday that her husband’s attempt to rescue their children is what will keep her going after their loss. “Somebody told me that when they found my husband, he had all three of my babies,” Coleman told Anderson Cooper on “Anderson Cooper Full Circle,” a daily interactive news show on Facebook Watch. “So the reason I couldn’t find them is because he was protecting them.” “That right there will keep me fighting for my family forever,” Coleman said. “To know that he did (was) exactly what he always told me when we first met: ‘I will always take care of you and our children.’” Coleman and 10 of her relatives were on a family vacation from Indiana, taking a tour Thursday of Table Rock Lake near the Missouri tourist hotspot of Branson. When the duck boat they were on capsized as a storm swept the lake, nine of her family members died, including her husband and three children. Coleman and her 13-year-old nephew were the only survivors from their family group. Passengers were told there was a storm coming before they went out on the water, Coleman said. They were told that the boat could take on waves of up to 18 to 10 feet, and she added that they were also told, “There are life jackets and they are above you, but ‘you don’t need to know where they are because you won’t need to use them.’” Coleman said the crew instructed the passengers to sit two to three people to a seat. “I was in the very front seat (with) my oldest son, who I explained earlier is on the autism spectrum, he’s very excitable,” she said. “So I wanted to make sure I can keep a hold of him. If he saw anything or splashed with water.” “As the first big wave came in, it looked like the water came into the boat then it washed out the back,” Coleman said. “When the last big wave came in, I lost a hold of my baby. I didn’t know the boat had capsized. I thought it just went under. I jumped up and immediately started floating,” Coleman said. “I was so disoriented. I couldn’t see anything, so I just started pushing with my hands, trying to find a way out,” she said. “It was so cold. I remember praying, ‘Lord, let me get to my babies. Lord, let me get to my babies.’ I couldn’t get to them.” As she lost hope of surviving, Coleman said she just let go and started floating. “I said if I can’t get to my family let me go,” she said. She felt warmer water closer to the surface and reached out her hand. When her head emerged from the lake, she looked around and saw a big riverboat docked nearby, but she didn’t see anyone from her family. “When they got me situated I didn’t see any of my people and then my nephew came running out,” Coleman said. Coleman went on to say that she had a message for survivors who have expressed to her their guilt for not being able to do more to help those who lost their lives. “We all went through something extremely traumatic, they should never feel guilty for surviving,” Coleman said. Duck boat survivor Tia Coleman who lost 9 relatives in the tragic accident joins Anderson Cooper today in Full Circle. Join us at 6:25p ET on Facebook Watch. Posted by Anderson Cooper Full Circle on Monday, July 23, 2018 Steve Almasy and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — The tourist duck boat that sank two weeks ago during a thunderstorm in Missouri, killing 17 people, was prohibited from traveling on water when winds were above 35 mph, a US Coast Guard certificate of inspection says. The Ride the Ducks Branson amphibious vessel sank July 19 as a storm and high winds lashed Table Rock Lake. The National Weather Service had warned the Branson area that winds in excess of 60 mph were approaching that evening. The highest wind gust eventually reported was 63 mph, CNN meteorologists said. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are focusing on when the boat operators decided to take the vessel into the water and when they became aware of a severe thunderstorm warning, a source with knowledge of the investigation has said. The water was calm when the boat entered the lake, but waves and winds picked up later, according to a timeline released by the NTSB. The thunderstorm had traveled hundreds of miles, prompting severe-weather alerts to the northwest of the Branson area before the vessel departed the terminal, authorities have said. The severe thunderstorm warning went out to the Branson area shortly after 6:30 p.m. – around the same time the vessel drove away from the terminal toward the lake, according to the NTSB’s timeline. Initial gusts arrived ahead of the storm at 6:59 p.m., the CNN Weather department said. The boat sank around 7:09 p.m., authorities have said. The NTSB timeline, citing video footage, says that before the vessel departed its terminal, a person told the captain and driver to do the water portion of the 70-minute tour before the land portion. About a minute later, the NTSB said in a news release, the captain “made a verbal reference to looking at the weather radar prior to the trip.” Coast Guard is investigating The certificate document filed in February 2017 by the Coast Guard also indicates the number of passengers permitted aboard the vessel and other operational guidelines. The certificate was made public Wednesday when the Coast Guard released details about how its investigation would be structured. The Coast Guard said it would establish a formal Marine Board of Investigation, the agency’s “highest-level investigation.” “The Coast Guard will conduct a thorough and detailed investigation to identify all potential causal factors associated with this tragedy,” Capt. Wayne Arguin, chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation, said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Ripley Entertainment Inc., the Branson duck tour business’s parent company, said she could not comment about the certificate or the Coast Guard’s investigation. “Because Ripley Entertainment is an active and cooperative participant in the ongoing accident investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, we are not authorized to provide any statement about that inquiry or the US Coast Guard’s announcement that it is joining in the analysis of the tragic event,” Ripley spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala said. The Coast Guard had said its inquiry will determine whether the actions of any person contributed to the deadly event. Victims’ families want ban of duck boats Earlier this week, the administrators of the estates of two family members who died filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages from the operator of the duck boat. When the vessel started sinking, a canopy entrapped the passengers and dragged them to the bottom of the lake, attorney Robert Mongeluzzi told reporters. The boat sank 40 feet and then rolled to an area 80 feet deep, Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said. The passengers might have survived if the Branson operators had not ignored a 2002 NTSB recommendation that duck boat canopies be removed, Mongeluzzi said. He said his clients pursued the lawsuit for two reasons. “They want to know what happened. Why did their loved ones die?” he said. “And more importantly, they want to know that no one ever dies again inside a deathtrap duck boat. They want this lawsuit to ban duck boats.” CNN’s Marlena Baldacci, Amanda Watts, Jason Hanna, Steve Almasy and Ralph Ellis contributed to this report.