A double-decker party boat with 53 people on board capsized in Texas on Saturday night during a severe thunderstorm, leaving one person dead, NBC News reports.
The incident occurred 40 miles from Houston on Lake Conroe, in Conroe, Texas, when the boat was nearly halfway through a 90-minute cruise, KPRC of Houston reports.
According to ABC 13, children as young as 18-months-old were on board the boat when it was capsized by 4-to-5-foot waves created by the storm. The 80-year-old man who died was identified as Karl Katzenberger of Montgomery, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. A woman who had a panic attack also went to the hospital.
“There’s multiple people hanging onto the boat. Trying to work on them to try to get them out,” a first responder says in dispatch audio obtained by ABC 13.
Brock O’Rourke, a resident who helped rescue passengers in the aftermath, said it was a “rough scene” and that those helping were “slowly pulling people back.”
“And finally, the police got here, and they dove into the water and checked, and it seems like we got everybody accounted for,” O’Rourke said.
Diana Elizalde, who was on the boat, told ABC 13 that there were four small children on board, and her goal was to make sure “the little ones were out first.” Some passengers, who were covered in diesel fuel, were rinsed off by crews after they were rescued.
Per NBC News, the parks department is currently investigating.
