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BRANSON, Mo. – "Catch the baby!"
Tia Coleman remembers her sister-in-law screaming before the tourist boat sinks into a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, including nine members of Coleman's family.
A huge wave, scattering passengers on the boat known as a duck in Table Rock Lake near Branson, said Coleman. When the Indianapolis woman came looking for air, she was alone. She prayed.
"I said," Lord, do you like, let me go to my babies, "she told reporters from her wheelchair Saturday in the lobby of a hospital where she recovers after swallowing water from the lake. "… they do not, Lord, take me too. I do not need to be here.
Coleman remembers seeing the rescue boat and managed to reach it, "in a way. Earlier, from her hospital bed, she told KOLR on television about her latest sister-in-law. words.
Coleman's husband and three children ages 9, 7 and 1; his sister-in-law of 45 years and his nephew of 2 years; her stepmother and stepfather as well as her husband's uncle all died Thursday night in the deadliest accident of its kind in nearly two decades.
Other people killed included a Missouri couple who had just celebrated her birthday; another Missouri couple on what was planned as their last extended vacation; a woman from Illinois who died saving the life of her granddaughter; a father and a son from Arkansas; and a retired pastor who was the operator of the boat.
None of the 31 passengers on board were wearing a lifejacket, according to an incident report released Saturday by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Federal and state investigators were trying to determine what had sent the ship, originally built for military use during the Second World War, to its demise. An initial assessment attributed thunderstorms and winds that were approaching the force of hurricanes, but it was unclear why the amphibious vehicle even ventured into the water.
Coleman said the crew told passengers that they were going in the water first, before the land portion of their tour, because of the storm that brought them. The area had been subjected to a violent thunderstorm for hours and a violent thunderstorm warning for more than 30 minutes before the boat sank.
Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, owner of Ride the Ducks in Branson, said that it was the only accident of the company in more than 40 years of activity. The company did not comment on Coleman's tour narrative, which usually begins with a tour of downtown Branson, known for its shows and entertainment, before the boat reaches the lake for a short ride on the water.
The president of the company, Jim Pattison Jr., said the captain of the boat had 16 years of experience and that the company was monitoring the weather.
Twenty-nine passengers and two crew members were on board. Fourteen people survived, including two adults who remained hospitalized on Saturday. Coleman and his 13-year-old nephew were the only 11 members of his family to board the boat to get out alive.
Another survivor, Alicia Dennison, 12, of Illinois, says that her grandmother, Leslie Dennison, aged 64, rescued her from drowning. Alicia's father, Todd Dennison, told Kansas City Star that her daughter remembered having felt her grandmother underneath her, pushing her up after the ship capsized.
Another young survivor was Loren Smith, 14, from Osceola, Arkansas. She suffered a concussion, but her father, Steve Smith, a 53-year-old retired mathematics teacher, and his 15-year-old brother, Lance, died.
Other people killed include William Bright, 65, and his wife, Janice, 63. The couple had recently celebrated its 45th wedding anniversary and had talked about Branson as one of their last great trips, recalled her neighbor Barbara Beck.
The couple moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to Higginsville, three years earlier, to get close to a girl and her grandchildren and quickly embrace the life of a family. small city.
William Bright's latest public post on Facebook reported the anniversary of the wedding and the joy he was experiencing with his wife, three children and 16 grandchildren. Life, he wrote, had been "very amusing".
Another Missouri couple killed in the accident were William Asher, 69, and Rosemarie Hamann, 68. The St. Louis couple celebrated Hamman's birthday earlier in the week. In a final Facebook photo posted by Hamann, he pulls out his tongue and she smiles.
"I can only imagine what they were living in. They were so in love, it's just heartbreaking," said friend Russ McKay, who told Hamann the eve of the accident.
McCay says that Hamann told him that the couple had just boarded a paddle boat and that he was planning to go back there. He does not know why they chose duck instead.
Chance also brought the Colemans aboard the convicted ship.
Tia Coleman said her family had first queued for the bad tour, so they had to change their tickets for 18:30. ride.
She says the crew showed the passengers where the lifejackets were, but said they would not need them.
The company's website had been removed on Saturday except for a statement that its operations would remain closed to support the investigation and give families and the community time to mourn.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the US Coast Guard hoped that a VCR recovered from the boat would help explain why it had sunk. Winds from Earl Weener, a member of the NTSB, were 2 mph below the strength of the hurricane at that time.
While 51-year-old boatman Kenneth McKee survived; his driver down, Bob Williams, 73, did not do it.
Branson Mayor Karen Best said Williams was a "great ambassador" for the city. The Williams family in Rhode Island, where he had lived for decades before retiring to Branson, remembered him as a deeply religious man who had founded a local church.
"Pastor Bob was a prince of a loving, kind and generous man, whose loss to our family is incalculable," said Williams' son-in-law, Mgr Jeffery Williams, who now heads the cathedral from the king to Providence.
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