From Southern Stone County Fire Protection District via Facebook: This is the staging area during the initial response to the "MCI" The Branson Belle was not involved in the incident. https://www.facebook.com/sscfpd/videos/10155428857546697/ Thee Southern Stone County Fire Protection District posted this video of the article scene at Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri. A duck boat that sank in Branson, Missouri, is raised out of the water. (CNN) — Tia Coleman was one of 31 people riding on a Ride the Ducks Branson amphibious vessel when the craft began to sink in the rough lake water whipped up by a fast-moving thunderstorm. Coleman, one of 14 people who survived after the boat went under the water, told CNN affiliate KOLR she was shouting but couldn’t hear or see anyone else. She had been on board with 10 members of her family, according to KOLR. “And I was yelling, I was screaming, and finally I said, ‘Lord, just let me die, let me die,’ I said. ‘I can’t keep drowning, I just can’t keep drowning,’” she told KOLR. “And then I just let go and I started floating. And I was floating up to the top. I felt the water temperature raise to warm,” she said. “And then I felt the temperature raise, I jumped up and I saw the big boat that sits out there,” she of spotting a riverboat that was docked nearby. People were throwing out life jackets. Water conditions on Table Rock Lake near the Missouri tourist mecca of Branson has deteriorated rapidly after a storm that had raced across the Midwest earlier Thursday rolling in with strong gusts. Another Ride the Ducks boat was nearby but made it to shore, ahead of the one Coleman was on. “We got out of it and made it to the ramp. And I turned around and watched the other boat nose-dive, and my heart dropped,” passenger Kourtney Parker said. Onlookers desperately tried to help as the duck boat began to sink in 40 feet of water. One group pulled an unconscious woman out of the water. An off-duty law enforcement officer dove into the choppy waters. There were life jackets on the boat, but Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said he doesn’t know whether people were wearing them. Early Saturday, the Stone County Sheriff’s Office released the names of all 17 people who died. Nine victims had the surname Coleman, including four children – the youngest just 1 year old. According to KOLR, Tia Coleman was one of just two members of her family who survived. Seventeen people, ranging in age from 1 to 76 years old, died, authorities said. Investigators are now looking into questions about the accident, including ones about the weather, the life jacket situation, the boat and the actions of the crew, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard said. By late Friday morning, all 17 bodies had been recovered, US Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Tasha Sadowicz said. The Coast Guard will conduct an investigation, said Sgt. Jason Pace of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is assisting. A team from the NTSB traveled to the scene Friday. The NTSB, on Twitter, sought the public’s help for photos or video of the sinking. Severe storm hit Branson area Jim Pattison Jr., president of the company that owns the duck boat tours, Ripley Entertainment Inc., said the ferocious squall “came out of nowhere.” According to weather data, the storm traveled hundreds of miles at 55 mph before it hit the lake. The area around Branson was placed under a severe thunderstorm warning shortly after 6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET), about half an hour before the boat sank. Branson was under a severe thunderstorm warning issued shortly after 6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET), about half an hour before the boat capsized. https://t.co/MABgacUimV pic.twitter.com/V7XVsFgP7Q — CNN Weather Center (@CNNweather) July 20, 2018 Radar shows the first wind gusts arriving at the lake ahead of the storm, at 6:59 p.m. There were reports of damage throughout Stone County, including trees down and structural damage, CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said. The highest wind gust reported in the area was 63 mph. The storm was part of the same upper-level weather system that spawned destructive tornadoes Thursday in Iowa, Missouri’s northern neighbor. Authorities received the first 911 call about the sinking at 7:09 p.m., the sheriff said. In July, the company operates tours that depart every 30 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. A tour lasts about 70 minutes, with about half on land and half on water, the company’s website says. A mechanical problem on another boat possibly led to a delay in the ill-fated craft beginning its tour. ’Those poor people, oh no!’ Jennie Phillips-Hudson Carr, was on the nearby Showboat Branson Belle, a riverboat docked near the sinking ship. Video she recorded shows at least three vessels on the lake, including the two Ride the Ducks boats rocking and tilting to the side as ripples turned into massive waves. Strong winds whipped waves head-on onto the boats. Charlie Riedel/AP Emergency workers patrol an area Friday near where the duck boat sank in Table Rock Lake. “Oh my God, those poor people, oh no!” someone says on the video as the water crashes into the smaller boats, and the one starts sinking. “If there’s kids on there, those poor babies,” a female voice says. The boat sank, wheels down, 40 feet down, and then rolled to an area 80 feet deep, Rader said. Among those killed was the driver, Robert “Bob” Williams, said his widow, Judy Williams. A second crew member – the boat’s captain, whose name wasn’t immediately released – was among the survivors and was taken to a hospital, Pattison said. ‘This should never end this way’ Ripley Entertainment said it recently acquired the boat company. The boat had a captain and a driver with a commercial license, he said. “Obviously, we shouldn’t be out there in severe weather,” Pattison said. The company has been in operation for 47 years without any incident such as this, he said. Asked whether the passengers and two crew members had time to put on life jackets, Pattison said, “We don’t know that yet.” “People are supposed to be able to go out for an outing and have a good time. This should never end this way – there’s not much more you can say,” he said when asked whether he had a message for relatives of those who were aboard. Showboat crew and passengers scrambled to help Two passengers on the Showboat Branson Belle, Trent Behr and his girlfriend, Allison Lester, described what they saw when they appeared Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Lester said the weather had been nice Thursday. But as she and Behr boarded the dinner boat cruise, “the wind really picked up bad and debris was flying everywhere,” she said. As they toured the dinner boat, the couple looked out the window and saw the duck boats struggling in the water. “It was maybe two minutes later, and we actually heard the captain say that the boat flipped or the boat is sinking,” Behr said. Behr said that at one point, he and other passengers on the dinner boat helped pull an unconscious woman from the water. EMTs arrived before he could administer CPR, he said. Among the rescuers was an off-duty sheriff’s deputy on the Branson Belle who “jumped in and helped,” said Rader, the Stone County sheriff. Nearby passenger: Everything happened fast Duck boats are amphibious vessels that travel on both land and water, and are popular among tourists in major cities. The boats’ history dates to World War II, when such vessels were a common sight due to their versatility. In Branson, they are driven along city streets for part of the tour before the driver uses a ramp to enter the lake. Pattison said he didn’t know when the doomed boat – or the one just in front of it – started the tour or entered the water. Parker, who was on the duck boat in front, told CNN that both vessels had delayed their entry into the lake.<doc-sep>The driver of the tourist duck boat that capsized on a Missouri lake is among the dead while the captain survived, officials said Friday. At least 13 people — including children — were killed when the Ride the Ducks vessel flipped over on Table Rock Lake in Branson Thursday night as a furious storm swept through the popular tourist town. see also Footage captures doomed duck boat’s final moments The last moments before a tourist duck boat tragically flipped... At a press conference Friday morning, Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said divers have located the boat, which initially sank in 40 feet of water and rolled down into depths of 80 feet. He said the amphibious boat, which can be used on land, was found upright on its wheels. “It’s been a long night, it’s been a very trying night,” a weary-looking Rader told reporters. Thirty-one people were aboard the watercraft — 29 tourists and the captain and driver. Rader said it’s unclear whether anyone on the boat was wearing life jackets and asked members of the public for any video they may have of the boat capsizing. He briefly mentioned the “outstanding” acts by those on the nearby Showboat Branson Belle — including an off-duty Stone County deputy sheriff — who jumped into the water to help save others. Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons was also on scene and vowed to do everything he could to aid the ongoing investigation. “The state of Missouri is going to do everything within our powers to make sure we provide the resources we need to complete this,” he said. On Friday, divers were working on recovering the bodies of four people who remain missing as a fresh round of thunderstorms were expected to roll into the Branson area in the afternoon.<doc-sep>Rescue personnel work after an amphibious "duck boat" capsized and sank, at Table Rock Lake near Branson, Stone County, Missouri, U.S. July 19, 2018 in this still image obtained from a video on social media. SOUTHERN STONE COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT/Facebook/via REUTERS (Reuters) - An Indiana woman who lost 9 members of her family, including her children and husband, when a “duck boat” capsized and sank in Missouri said on television that the captain of the vessel told passengers not to put on life jackets. Tia Coleman told an Indianapolis television station that she and her nephew were the only survivors from 11 members of their family who were on the amphibious vehicle when it capsized and sank in a storm near Branson, Missouri on Thursday, killing 17 of its 31 passengers. "I lost all my children, I lost my husband, I lost my mother in law, I lost my father in law, I lost my uncle, I lost my sister in law - she was my sister - and I lost my nephew, I'm ok, but this is really hard," Coleman told Fox 59 from her hospital bed in Branson. bit.ly/2LB7QwJ Coleman said her husband would “want the world to know” that when they were in the water, the captain of the vehicle told them not to put their life jackets on, an action she believed had cost lives. “The captain told us ‘don’t worry about grabbing the life jackets, you won’t need them,’ so nobody grabbed them because we listened to the captain and he told us to stay seated,” Coleman said. “However in doing that, when it was time to grab them it was too late. I believe that a lot of people could have been spared.” The captain of the vehicle was among 14 survivors, seven of whom were injured, one of them severely. Coleman said the boat crew were told to first do the water section of the 70-minute land/water tour, which involves going in Table Rock Lake near Branson, so as to avoid an expected storm while they were sailing. “There was a warning, the warning people said ‘take them out to the water first before the storm hits,’” Coleman said, adding that she did not know whether they went through the land or the water section of the tour first. “The water didn’t look ominous at the very first, it looked like normal water, and then it started looking really choppy.” A bystander took a more than four minute video of the duck boat slowly being swamped by waves as it tried to make it to shore, before it finally capsized and sank.<doc-sep>
Tia Coleman, one of the survivors of the duck boat tour that capsized in Missouri, claims the vessel's captain told passengers not to worry about using life jackets Tia Coleman — one of the people aboard the duck boat tour that capsized in Missouri, killing 17 victims including nine members of her family — claims the vessel’s captain told passengers not to worry about using life jackets as the boat was rocking in the rough waters of Table Rock Lake. FOX59 spoke on the phone with Tia from the hospital on Friday as she continued to recover from pneumonia and other injuries related to the tragic accident. “The captain had told us, ‘Don’t worry about grabbing the life jackets, you won’t need them,’ ” Tia recalled of his alleged message, which she said came as they were already in the water. “So nobody grabbed them because we listened to the captain as he told us the safety [rules].” “However, in doing that, when it was time to grab them, it was too late,” Tia told the outlet. “I believe that a lot of people could have been spared.” Ripley’s Entertainment, which owns and operates the Ride the Ducks tour, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about Tia’s claims. 4 Tia Coleman | Credit: ABC 6 Thursday’s accident took the lives of nine members of Tia’s family, including her husband, Glenn Coleman, 40, and her three children: Reece Coleman, 9, and Evan Coleman, 7, and Arya Coleman, 1. Out of the entire family on the duck boat, only Tia and her 13-year-old nephew survived. His mother, Angela Coleman, 45, and brother, Maxwell Coleman, 2, also died. Tia’s other family members included Belinda Coleman, 69, Ervin Coleman, 76, and Horace Coleman, 70. “My heart is very heavy,” she told FOX59. “Out of 11 of us, only two of us surviving… I lost all my children. I lost my husband. I lost my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. I lost my uncle. I lost my sister-in-law. And I lost my nephew. I’m okay but this is really hard. This is really hard.” “There’s not much that can be done,” she told the news station. “The only thing that I would like to be done that can’t be is to bring my family back. Keep praying for me. … We’ve lost so much.” Duck boat victims Coleman familyCredit: Coleman Family The Coleman Family | Credit: Coleman Family Tia was visiting from Indiana, and took the tour alongside 30 other passengers. According to Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader, the boat turned over and sunk due to the stormy weather at about 8 p.m. ET, with the thunderstorm winds as high as 60 mph, NBC News reported. The duck boat remains at the bottom of the lake. A severe thunderstorm warning had allegedly been issued for Branson at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Associated Press reported. “There was a warning,” Tia told FOX59 of the weather, claiming that “the warning people said, ‘Take them out to the water first before the storm hits.’ ” “Since I don’t know the route, I’m not sure if we went to the water first or if we went to the town first,” she said. “It took awhile to get to the water. So I’m just unsure.” She added that she felt motion the entire time, simply because they were on a boat. “The water didn’t look ominous at first, it looked like normal water,” she told the outlet. “And then it started looking very choppy.” duck-boat-accident-4 A Ride the Duck boat | Credit: Michael Thomas/Getty Missouri Boat Accident, Branson, USA - 20 Jul 2018 A park ranger patrols an area on Friday, near where a duck boat capsized in Table Rock Lake In a tearful video interview from her hospital bed obtained by multiple outlets, including WSYX6 and KOLR10, Coleman said the captain never told them to use the life vests. “They told us they’re up here, this is where they are — they showed us where they were,” she said. “But ‘Don’t worry about it, you won’t need it.’ And we said, ‘Okay.’ ” “So when the captain took over, I thought that at some point he would say grab the jackets now. But we were told to stay seated, and everybody stayed seated,” Tia shared. “Nobody grabbed it.” She added: “When that boat is found, all those life jackets are going to be in there. Nobody pulled one off.