The El Dorado county sheriff’s office confirmed Monday that it had found a seventh person dead after a boat capsized on Lake Tahoe during a fast-moving weekend thunderstorm that caused high winds and swells of up to 8ft. One person is still missing.
A 27ft-long gold Chris-Craft vessel with 10 people aboard overturned Saturday afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park on the lake’s south-west edge, according to the US Coast Guard.
Emergency services reported six people dead at the scene and two missing at the time. Two others were taken to a hospital in unknown condition, El Dorado county officials said. The seventh body was found Sunday evening, according to the El Dorado county sheriff’s office. Their names won’t be released until family members are notified, Sgt Kyle Parker said.
The intensity of the thunderstorm surprised even forecasters, who had predicted some rain but nothing like the sudden squall that lashed the southern part of the lake at about 3pm, said meteorologist Matthew Chyba with the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nevada. Winds topped 35mph (56 km/h) and waves swelled more than 8ft (2.5m).
“We weren’t expecting it to be so strong,” Chyba said Monday. He said temperatures in the area were 15 to 25 degrees below normal for this time of year, which could have contributed to the unstable air mass.
Eight-foot waves on Tahoe is “pretty significant”, Chyba said. “They were really rocking the lake.”
Local witnesses told South Tahoe News that unusually high winds had struck the lake in the afternoon, raising waves and creating dangerous conditions. “It was a very, very tragic day on Lake Tahoe,” local boat captain Joby Cefalu told the outlet.
Lake Tahoe is a popular summer recreation destination for boaters, kayakers and paddleboarders. The pristine lake with very cold water straddles California and Nevada and is one of the deepest in the country, second only to Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Rescue crews and divers scoured the area Saturday evening for the remaining victims and resumed efforts Sunday morning before the US Coast Guard eventually called off its search. El Dorado county sheriff’s deputies continued searching on Monday with help from other agencies from California and neighboring Nevada, Parker said.
The storm Saturday cleared out within about two hours.
Chris Williams, a party boat operator with Tahoe Sports, was one of four company captains on the lake Saturday when the weather turned. He was stunned by the force of the storm and the size of the swells.
“We braved the weather and came back during some severe wave heights that have never been seen on Lake Tahoe,” Williams told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We were pushing the vessels to their maximum capabilities while making sure to keep all clients safely aboard.”
While all guests from Tahoe Sports charters returned safely, Williams said two boats from the company’s Tahoe Keys location broke from the pier and washed ashore.
Video obtained by KCRA-TV showed moored boats at a nearby marina crashing into one another amid strong gusts.
