Survivor, Tia Coleman Screenshot : CNN Tragedy struck Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri on Thursday night when a tourist duck boat capsized, claiming the life of 17 people. There were 31 people on-board, ranging in ages from 1-76. One family, The Colemans lost nine family members. Advertisement Belinda Coleman, Glenn Coleman, Horace “Butch” Coleman, Irvin Raymond Coleman, Angela Coleman, Evan Coleman, Reece Coleman, Maxwell Coleman and Arya Coleman all lost their lives in the tragedy, according to ABC News. Only two members of the family survived: Tia Coleman and her 13-year-old nephew. Tia lost her husband, her parents-in-law and all three of her children, aged 9, 7 and 1. From her hospital bed, Tia shared her horrific experience. “I couldn’t hear screams, it felt like I was out there on my own. And I was yelling, screaming and finally, I said, ‘Lord, just let me die, let me die, I can’t keep drowning, I just can’t keep drowning.’ And then I just let go,” Tia told ABC. Once Tia “let go,” she began floating and was able to make it to the top of the water and was thrown a life jacket from the rescue boat. According to Fox affiliate WXIN, Tia was told that she was told by the boat’s captain, who survived, not to worry about the life jackets. “My husband would want me to say this — he would want the world to know that on this boat we were on, the captain had told us ‘don’t worry about grabbing the life jackets — you won’t need them’ so nobody grabbed them as we listened to the captain as he told us to stay seated,” Tia Coleman said. Even though there were severe thunderstorms happening that evening, the boats still set sail. The weather got really bad, really fast, with winds up to 60mph. If the boat was still going to go out on the water, it seems as if there would be a need to tell people to all wear life jackets. Advertisement ABC News reached out to Ripley Entertainment, which owns the duck boat company, but they did not immediately respond. They have since put out this statement: We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident that occurred at Ride The Ducks Branson. This incident has deeply affected all of us. Words cannot convey how profoundly our hearts are breaking. We will continue to do all we can to assist the families who were involved. Advertisement There is an investigation is now underway. U.S. Coast Guard Captain Scott Stoermer said at a press conference on Friday that whether or not the life jackets were worn will “definitely be a focus of the investigation and certainly one of the questions we will be looking to ask.” This video below was captured by Tony Burkhart, a man who was supposed to be out on the duck boat with his wife, but after seeing the weather, decided to get a refund and leave. This decision saved the Burkharts’ lives. Advertisement And apparently, the Colemans were never supposed to be on the duck boat that capsized. Tia told KOLR that they missed their boat after arriving at the wrong duck boat business. So when they got to “Ride the Ducks,” they switched out their tickets for the 6:30 ride, the ride that claimed 17 lives of the 31 onboard. Advertisement The names of the victims are slowly starting to be released. According to People the deceased include Janice Bright, 63, and William Bright, 65 (they were celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary); William Asher, 69 and his girlfriend Rosemarie Hamann, 68; father and son, Steve Smith, 53, and Lance Smith, 15; Leslie Dennison, 65 and the driver of the duck boat, Robert “Bob” Williams Missouri governor, Mike Parson said in a statement on Friday: What happened here last night was a heart-breaking tragedy, and we must all work together to support the victims and their families. The courageous efforts of emergency responders and civilian rescuers helped avert an even worse tragedy, as people rushed to help in extremely dangerous conditions. I was inspired by the stories I heard from some of those who were part of the rescue effort and tremendously encouraged by the strength of the family members of victims I met with today. We pray for all those who were affected by this terrible tragedy. Advertisement President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump offered their condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. The Trumps extended “their deepest sympathies to all those affected by yesterday’s boating accident on Table Rock Lake,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday. “Our prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. We are thankful for the brave first responders and dive crews, whose quick and decisive actions have saved many lives, and we continue to pray for their safety as their search, rescue, and recovery operations continue.”<doc-sep>The last photo the Colemans took as a family shows them with a life preserver. In the last photo they took together, 11 members of the Coleman family are shown smiling and posing with a life preserver just before they boarded a duck boat in Branson, Missouri, for a voyage only two of them survived. In the picture, Tia Coleman is seen holding her 1-year-old daughter Arya and standing next to her 76-year-old uncle, Ray Colemen. Her husband, Glenn, rests his hands on the shoulder of their nephew, Donovan Hall, 13, who has his arms around his cousin, Reece, 9. Glenn's parents, Horace and Belinda, stand to the right in the group picture, while 7-year-old Evan Coleman, his aunt, Angela, and his little cousin Max, 2, round out the family portrait. The cheery snapshot was to be a vacation souvenir, a vivid reminder of a summer spent together. Now it is all that Tia Coleman and her nephew, Donovan, have to remember their last moments spent with their loved ones before they died. Shortly after taking the photo on Thursday afternoon, the family embarked on a Ride the Ducks tour of Table Rock Lake near Branson, a scheduled 70-minute adventure that turned into a nightmare when a fierce storm suddenly struck and the boat they were on was buffeted by gusts of up to 73 miles per hour and capsized by waves that crested at 6 feet, officials said. The Colemans, of Indianapolis, were among 31 people, including two crew members, aboard the amphibious vessel. Seventeen people died in the tragedy. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, trying to determine what doomed the boat dubbed the "Stretch Duck 7." The U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday that a salvage operation will commence Monday morning to bring the sunken boat to the surface to be examined. On Saturday, divers retrieved a recorder of the boat's trip data, the equivalent of an airplane's black box, and it was flown to Washington, D.C., to be analyzed. In an emotional press conference Saturday from Cox Medical Center in Branson, Tia Coleman, who lost her husband and three children in the tragic lake excursion, said when she and her family boarded the boat, the captain pointed out life jackets but said they wouldn't be needed. "The captain did say something about life jackets," Coleman recalled Saturday. "He said, 'Above you are your life jackets. There are three sizes. He said, 'I'm gonna show you where they are, but you won't need them. So, no need to worry.' So we didn't grab them." A memorial service for those who died on the duck boat was held Sunday at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri. "Our lives were forever changed on 7/19/18," Branson Mayor Karen Best said in a statement. Best said the service was not only scheduled to pay tribute to the victims and survivors but to "begin the healing process for our community."<doc-sep>(CNN) — The 17 people who died in the duck boat tragedy last week in southwestern Missouri were not wearing life jackets when found, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Sunday. The Ride the Ducks Branson amphibious vessel had 31 people on board when it set sail Thursday on Table Rock Lake near the Missouri tourist mecca of Branson as a severe thunderstorm whipped up intense winds and waves. A treacherous squall sank the boat. There were life jackets on the boat, but passengers weren’t required to wear them, according to Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader. Rader said over the weekend he didn’t know if people were wearing them. Tia Coleman, one of the 14 survivors, said passengers were told there was a storm coming before the trip. The captain mentioned the life jackets before they went on the lake but said, “you won’t need them so we didn’t grab them,” Coleman said Saturday. 02:11 - Source: CNN Survivor describes family members she lost “The captain did say something about life jackets. He said, above you are the life jackets, there are three sizes, but you won’t need them,” Coleman said Saturday night. She told CNN affiliate KOLR: “When that boat is found, all those life jackets are going to be on there because nobody pulled one off.” Coleman, who lost nine family members, said she thinks she could have saved her children if she had been able to get them life jackets. “I felt like, if I was able to get a life jacket I could have saved my babies because they could have at least floated up to the top and somebody could have grabbed them,” Coleman told reporters. In an exchange over Facebook, survivor Talyssa Mann, 19 of Carlsbad, New Mexico, said Coleman’s statement about the life jackets was correct. The boat sank 40 feet and then rolled to an area 80 feet deep, according to Rader. The dead victims ranged in age from 1 to 76 years, authorities said. State investigators are looking into whether any criminal acts were committed, according to Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the cause of the sinking. CNN’s Darran Simon, Steve Almasy and Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
“I had my son right next to me. But when the water filled up the boat, I could no longer see," duck boat survivor Tia Coleman explained While fighting to save her own life, Tia Coleman — who lost nine members of her family, including her husband and three children, after a duck boat capsized in Missouri on Thursday — was focused on finding her three children. During a press conference on Saturday at Cox Medical Center Branson, where Tia has been hospitalized since the tragedy, the survivor recounted what was going through her mind when water started filling up the boat. “I’ve always loved water, I don’t know if it’s a Pisces or what, I’ve always loved water. But when that water came over the boat, I didn’t know what happened,” Tia recalled, according to CNN. “I had my son right next to me. But when the water filled up the boat, I could no longer see. I couldn’t feel anybody, I couldn’t see, I just remember, ‘I gotta get out, I gotta get out.’ ” After being plunged towards the bottom of Table Rock Lake, Tia struggled to reach the water’s surface. “And as I was swimming up, I was praying,” she explained. “I said, ‘Lord please, let me get to my babies, I gotta get to my babies, I gotta get to my babies.’ ” tia-coleman Tia Coleman | Credit: Charlie Riedel/AP/REX/Shutterstock 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. RELATED VIDEO: Video Shows Final Moments Before Tourist Duck Boat Capsizes During the press conference on Saturday, Tia spoke briefly about her late children. She described her eldest son Reece, who was autistic, as being “the happiest, sweetest boy you’d ever met,” USA Today reported. Tia also described Evan, her youngest son, as being “extremely smart, quick and witty,” adding that her 1-year-old daughter Arya had “1,000 personalities wrapped in one.” Duck boat victims Coleman familyCredit: Coleman Family The Coleman Family | Credit: Coleman Family During a phone conversation from the hospital with FOX59 on Friday, Tia claimed that the captain of the duck boat “had 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 as he told us the safety [rules],” she continued, adding that she believed “a lot of people could have been spared” if they had been properly prepared. During the press conference on Saturday, Coleman doubled down on her claim. “I felt like, if I was able to get a life jacket, I could have saved my babies because they could have at least floated up to the top and somebody could have grabbed them,” Tia remarked, according to CNN. duck-boat-accident-4 Credit: Michael Thomas/Getty “Going home, I already know is gonna be completely, completely difficult. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. Since I’ve had a home, it’s always been filled with little feet and laughter. And my husband,” Tia tearfully said during the press conference. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do it.” USA Today reported that Tia doesn’t “know yet” whether she’s happy to have survived the accident that took the lives of many of her family members. “There’s no way I should be here,” she said, according to the outlet.