Survivors recall the wave, the fear, the heroes

BRANSON -- "Grab the baby!"

Those were the last words Tia Coleman recalls her sister-in-law yelling before the tourist boat they were on sank into a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, including nine of Coleman's family members.

A huge wave hit, scattering passengers on the duck boat into Table Rock Lake near Branson, Coleman said, recounting the ordeal from a hospital bed. When the Indianapolis woman came up for air, she was alone. She prayed.

"I said, 'Jesus please keep me, just keep me so I can get to my children,'" Coleman told television station KOLR.

She spotted a rescue boat and swam as fast as she could.

Eleven members of Coleman's family boarded the boat, and only two -- Coleman and her 13-year-old nephew -- survived. Coleman's husband and three children, ages 9, 7 and 1; her 45-year-old sister-in-law and 2-year-old nephew; her mother-in-law, father-in-law and her husband's uncle all died Thursday night in the deadliest accident of its kind in nearly two decades.

Others killed included a Missouri couple who had just celebrated a birthday; another Missouri couple on what was planned as their last extended vacation; an Illinois woman who died while saving her granddaughter's life; an Arkansas father and son; and a retired pastor who was the boat's operator.

Chance took the Colemans to the doomed vessel. Tia Coleman said her family initially lined up for the wrong tour, so they had to switch out their tickets for the 6:30 p.m. ride.

Coleman said the crew told passengers they were going into the water first, before the land-based part of their tour, because of the incoming storm. The area had been under a severe-thunderstorm watch for hours and a severe-storm warning for more than 30 minutes before the boat sank.

None of the 31 passengers onboard was wearing a life jacket, according to a report released Saturday by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Coleman said the crew showed passengers where the life jackets were, but that they also said, "Don't worry about it, you won't need it."

When swells crashed into the boat, they were told to stay seated, she said.

"When that boat is found, all those life jackets are going to be on there," Coleman said. "Nobody pulled them off."

Coast Guard Capt. Scott Stoemer says investigators hope to raise the boat early this week.

State and federal investigators were trying to determine what sent the vessel to its demise. An initial assessment blamed thunderstorms and winds that approached hurricane strength, but it wasn't clear why the amphibious vehicle even ventured into the water.

A former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday that regardless of weather, the boats should be banned from commercial recreational use.

James Hall, who was appointed chairman in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, said he doesn't believe there's a way to make the vehicles safe, particularly in bad weather. He noted they were originally designed to assault beaches in World War II.

Most oversight for the vessels is provided by the Coast Guard, but Hall said the Coast Guard isn't staffed properly to provide the type of strict oversight the boats require.

Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said it was the company's only accident in more than 40 years of operation. The company hasn't commented on Coleman's account of the tour, which usually begins with a tour of downtown Branson, before the vessel enters the lake for a short ride on the water.

Company President Jim Pattison Jr. said the boat captain had 16 years of experience, and the business monitors the weather.

Twenty-nine passengers and two crew members were aboard. Fourteen people survived, including two adults who remained hospitalized Saturday.

Another survivor was 12-year-old Alicia Dennison of Illinois, who said her grandmother, Leslie Dennison, 64, saved her from drowning. Alicia's father, Todd Dennison, told the Kansas City Star that his daughter recalled feeling her grandmother below her, pushing her upward after the boat capsized.

Another young survivor was 14-year-old Loren Smith of Osceola. She suffered a concussion, but her father, retired math teacher Steve Smith, 53, and her 15-year-old brother, Lance, died.

Others killed included 65-year-old William Bright and his wife, Janice, 63, of Higginsville, Mo. The couple had recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary and had talked about Branson being one of their last big trips, recalled neighbor Barbara Beck.

William Bright's final public Facebook posting noted the wedding anniversary and how happy he was with his wife, three kids and 16 grandchildren. Life, he wrote, had "been a lot of fun."

Another Missouri couple killed in the accident were 69-year-old William Asher and Rosemarie Hamann, 68. The St. Louis-area couple had been celebrating Hamann's birthday earlier in the week.

"I can only imagine what they were going through. They were so in love. It's just heartbreaking," said friend Russ McKay, who said he talked to Hamann the day before the accident.

The company's website had been taken down by Saturday, save for a statement that its operations would remain shuttered to support the investigation and allow time for families and the community to grieve.

While the boat captain survived, its driver, Bob Williams, 73, did not.

Branson Mayor Karen Best said Williams was a "great ambassador" for the city. Williams' family in Rhode Island, where he'd lived for decades before retiring to Branson, remembered him as a deeply religious man who founded a church.

"Pastor Bob was a prince of a man, loving, kind, and generous, whose loss to our family is incalculable," said Williams' son-in-law, Bishop Jeffery Williams, who now leads King's Cathedral in Providence.

Information for this article was contributed by Philip Marcelo, John Hanna, Sara Burnett, Roxana Hegeman, Brian Slodysko, Hannah Grabenstein, Jim Salter and Monika Mathur of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/22/2018