A search was suspended Sunday for two boaters who went missing after their vessel capsized on Lake Tahoe the previous afternoon, killing six others.
Two more people were rescued and taken to the hospital, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard said late Saturday.
The sheriff’s office and the Coast Guard responded about 3 p.m. Saturday to reports that 10 people were in the water next to a capsized boat near California’s D.L. Bliss State Park, at the southwestern end of the lake. The 27-foot gold Chris-Craft vessel reportedly “capsized due to a large swell,” the Coast Guard said. Winds were at 30 knots, generating six-foot to eight-foot swells.
“Tragically, six deceased adults were recovered from the water,” the sheriff’s office said late Saturday, adding two people remained “unaccounted for.”
A chopper from the sheriff’s office circled overhead for hours, and a Coast Guard plane joined the search, flying in a grid pattern, South Tahoe Now reported. Search teams broke for the night and resumed Sunday morning, scouring more than 390 square miles over a combined 12 hours, the Coast Guard said.
Several agencies assisted, including the sheriff’s office and K-9 unit, California State Parks rangers and seasonal lifeguards, a boat crew from the Coast Guard Station Lake Tahoe and the Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento C-27 Spartan aircrew.
Authorities suspended the search at 10:55 a.m. “pending further developments,” the Coast Guard said in an update.
“Suspending a search is always a difficult decision to make and weighs heavily on each Coast Guard member involved,” David Herndon, a Coast Guard search and rescue mission coordinator in the San Francisco sector, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those involved in the boat capsize.”
The names of the dead and missing were withheld while next-of-kin were notified, police said.
Numerous other boats were damaged that day as the powerful thunderstorm churned up waves and sent boats smashing into each other and the marina, according to KCRA-TV.
The wind whipped up suddenly from the north around 3 p.m. Saturday, witnesses told South Tahoe Now. The eight-to-10-foot troughs the storm created can be more dangerous than 30-foot waves in the sea, Cefalu told the outlet.
With News Wire Services
