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p. 274: New Fire in the Hole announced for 2024!

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Pretty sad that boats would be on the lake with severe storms very clearly in the forecast. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued at 1120AM, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 632PM, and the storms hit Table Rock Lake around 7PM.

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http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Emergency-crews-work-incident-involving-amphibious-boat-on-Table-Rock-Lake-488679201.html

 

Stone County sheriff reports 8 dead, 7 injured after duck boat capsizes on Table Rock Lake

 

The Stone County Sheriff confirms eight fatalities involved in a Ride the Ducks boat capsizing on Table Rock Lake Thursday.

 

Emergency crews responded to the incident shortly after 7 p.m. after a severe line of thunderstorms rolled through the area.

 

Sheriff Doug Rader reports the boat had 31 people on board. He tells KY3 News seven suffered injuries in the crash. Cox Medical Center reports two suffered critical injuries in the tragedy. Some of the 31 on board include children. Divers are on the scene searching for more possible victims. The sheriff says he does not know how many on the boat are missing. The sheriff is asking for any family missing someone to go to Branson City Hall. It remains a rescue and recovery mission.

 

Investigators say the boat ended up sinking in the lake. It remains in the water. Boaters and staff from the nearby Branson Belle rescued several.

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Search and rescue called off and switching to recovery mode according to reports. This is really bad. As of this writing only 18 people have been recovered with 11 being dead. Over 30 people were reported on board.

 

Despite the tragic outcome for the boat in question, I'm actually impressed these boats held up as well as they did. The other boat did manage to make it back safely. However, it appears that was because it was not fully loaded unlike the one that sank. If you see the videos this looks like something you would see from a storm out at sea, its crazy to see Table Rock look like that with them out there.

 

The final death blow to the vessel is around 4:10, they also reported live on KY3 that they had wind gusts equal to a Cat3 Hurricane! http://www.ky3.com/content/news/CAUGHT-ON-CAMERA-Viewer-captures-Ride-the-Ducks--488687431.html

 

Another article with various videos: https://heavy.com/news/2018/07/branson-duck-video-boat-sinking-sinks/

 

Alternate Link:

 

POV video from the surviving boat:

 

On another note, I could see how this could very well mark the end for Branson's Ride The Ducks Tours. The chain as a whole has unfortunately already suffered from a lot of bad publicity from other incidents across the nation.

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On another note, I could see how this could very well mark the end for Branson's Ride The Ducks Tours. The chain as a whole has unfortunately already suffered from a lot of bad publicity from other incidents across the nation.

 

Honestly, I think this needs to be the end of all of these. They just don't seem to have the safety record that they should. I feel like every year we get some story of an accident or death on one around the country.

 

Ugh, I just watched some of the videos and it's pretty bad. These vehicles are not good cars and they're not good boats, also I understand that storms can come on quickly (I live in Florida!), but it seems someone made a mistake having the boat out when a storm like that came through.

Edited by SharkTums
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Horrible news...how terribly sad for all involved.

 

I remember doing one of these tours in Pittsburgh several years ago and mentioning to Michael that I felt a wee bit too close for comfort to the water when we went into the 3 rivers. While they told us to keep our hands arm inside the boat, you could have easily just reached out and dunked your hand in the water - I would say only 3-4" if I seem to recall correctly?

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Just to update, I live in St. Louis so this is big news and updates are frequent. Of the 31 on board 14 survived and it is confirmed by Missouri State Highway Patrol the remaining 17 did not make it. Such an awful and avoidable outcome. Hopefully at the very least operators of these boat tours will take more serious consideration to weather reports in the future.

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Just read in a news story that Herschend Family Entertainment are sole owners of Ride the Ducks.

 

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article215219170.html

Herschend sold the majority of the company in 2012.

 

Got it.

 

ABC News is reporting that the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning with high winds for that area about half an hour before the boat was hit. Incredible negligence to take those boats on the water. A warning means the storm had formed and was on its way.

 

People said it was sunny and the storm popped up out of nowhere, but clearly the National Weather Service was all over it in plenty of time. Weather forecasting is too good these days for these operators to not be aware of imminent weather threats. My cell phone goes off automatically with watches and warnings because I want to be aware of severe threats since we live in the midwest.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/missouri-duck-boat-capsize-unfolded-amid-weather-warnings/story?id=56711130

Edited by ilrider
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Yes, it was sunny and the storm came suddenly as you looked at it on the ground, but on radar it had been coming for some time. There was a severe thunderstorm watch for most of yesterday, and a warning came about 4:30 or so. I was at work when this happened (I work at Springfield-Branson Airport), and we were all in storm shelters when I got a news alert for this. Airplanes were all grounded and everyone in both terminals were in storm shelters, and these people thought it was totally okay to take some tourists out in a boat on the lake. This is negligence if I've ever seen it.

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Yes, it was sunny and the storm came suddenly as you looked at it on the ground, but on radar it had been coming for some time.

 

If this was the case, then there should’ve been someone telling the driver to not go into the water. It shouldn’t be the drivers responsibility to check the radar and see what’s coming. I wonder if they had anyone monitoring the storms coming.

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That's quite a bold statement, especially since the driver should be responsible for the safety of their passengers.

 

So, every operator is responsible for monitoring the weather instead of one person for the location?

 

You feel the same for other amusement rides? The guy at the coaster control panel is supposed to track the weather instead of park operations doing it?

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With a warning like that with that type of advanced warning it seems like it was a well formed line of storms that was already on radar and tracking through the area. If we were dealing with a pop-up storm I would almost understand but you wouldn't have that type of advanced warning with specific information from a pop-up storm, nor would you have a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in advance (though you'd likely have a watch). The storm had wind speeds of 63 and the warning said 60 so they were basically spot on. They f*cked up royally and there's no way to sugarcoat it. The storm was exactly as advertised and the NWS gave them plenty of advanced warning.

 

It shouldn’t be the drivers responsibility to check the radar and see what’s coming.

That's quite a bold statement, especially since the driver should be responsible for the safety of their passengers.

 

I don't know the specifics of their operation, but my guess is that there's someone who watches the weather and communicates with the drivers. There's no way they ask each and every driver to look at radar and make weather forecasts while driving a 30 something passenger bus / boat. The drivers should be focused on driving and leading a tour.

Edited by coasterbill
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Yes, it was sunny and the storm came suddenly as you looked at it on the ground, but on radar it had been coming for some time.

 

If this was the case, then there should’ve been someone telling the driver to not go into the water. It shouldn’t be the drivers responsibility to check the radar and see what’s coming. I wonder if they had anyone monitoring the storms coming.

It's my understanding that they do. The last time I was on it a couple of years ago, we were not able to go on Table Rock because the winds were too high, so they took us on Taneycomo instead, where the cliffs shielded and the wind speed was lower. So they do have some sort of system in place, though I don't have any sort of detailed knowledge of it.

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With a warning like that with that type of advanced warning it seems like it was a well formed line of storms that was already on radar and tracking through the area. If we were dealing with a pop-up storm I would almost understand but you wouldn't have that type of advanced warning with specific information from a pop-up storm, nor would you have a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in advance (though you'd likely have a watch). The storm had wind speeds of 63 and the warning said 60 so they were basically spot on. They f*cked up royally and there's no way to sugarcoat it. The storm was exactly as advertised and the NWS gave them plenty of advanced warning.

 

It shouldn’t be the drivers responsibility to check the radar and see what’s coming.

That's quite a bold statement, especially since the driver should be responsible for the safety of their passengers.

 

I don't know the specifics of their operation, but my guess is that there's someone who watches the weather and communicates with the drivers. There's no way they ask each and every driver to look at radar and make weather forecasts while driving a 30 something passenger bus / boat. The drivers should be focused on driving and leading a tour.

Good point, I didn't think of that. There had to have been a breakdown in communication somewhere that led to the driver being caught off guard, especially with the storm being warned for half an hour. I just got back from Brason on Sunday, and it's very hard for me to even comprehend that an accident of this magnitude could happen in such a wonderful place. I hope they find out what happened so situations like this one do not occur in the future.

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Great article from the Washington Post that Chicago TV meteorologist Tom Skilling just posted on his FB page. This should shut up anyone you might find still trying to defend the boat company:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/07/20/the-violent-storm-behind-the-duck-boat-tragedy-was-well-predicted-not-out-of-nowhere/?utm_term=.1e7c736a8b31

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There had to have been a breakdown in communication somewhere that led to the driver being caught off guard, especially with the storm being warned for half an hour.

 

At least 2 were out as they are both on the video.

 

How many did they have?

 

System breakdown? Storm move in faster than expected? Not faster than forecast, but we've all had forecasts off by 20 min or more. And I've seen plenty hit faster than forecast.

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Great article from the Washington Post that Chicago TV meteorologist Tom Skilling just posted on his FB page. This should shut up anyone you might find still trying to defend the boat company:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/07/20/the-violent-storm-behind-the-duck-boat-tragedy-was-well-predicted-not-out-of-nowhere/?utm_term=.1e7c736a8b31

 

The company is definitely at fault because someone should’ve seen the storm coming and warned the drivers to not go in the water. It is very possible, however, that the drivers of the boats that were in the water were unaware of the severe storm being so close to them.

 

I just don’t understand why the boats have those covers for the windows. In what situations are those useful or necessary to have? When those things are up there is no possible way 31 people would be able to escape in this type of situation.

 

Also, SDC tweeted that the Showboat will be closed again tomorrow.

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A few points to make about this tragic situation,

 

1. Two boats where in the water during the storm not too far apart. The lead boat had just made it to shore as the 2nd one was taken over by water. I'm going to assume that the Captain of the 2nd boat was assuming they too would make the last stretch to the shore like the one in front of it.

2. As mid westerners know....those bow echo thunderstorms hit fast. You can have blue skies one minute and full blown storm 2 minutes later. That is no excuse with the situation....I'm curious how bad the weather was when the entered the water. No doubt their was plenty of warning given about the storm.

3. The morning after the disaster....Ripley's CEO gave interviews to the press including one on national TV. I got to give him some credit for his leadership post accident. It would have been easy for him to hide behind a generic statement. It was obvious he was shook up and devastated that it happened....even admitted that they should not have been on the lake.

4. Hindsight being 20/20....they should have put the life jackets on and abandoned ship before taking on water. But again....they where getting close to shore, the other boat just made it, and it took on water fast. Just a horrible situation.

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The DUKW was raised today. The first thing which was very apparent and damning was the fact that nearly all the life jackets were intact and still mounted to the rack of the vessel. http://www.ky3.com/content/news/PICTURES-Sunken-duck-boat-raised-from-Missouri-lake-488897941.html

 

The lake depth here was also stated to have been 80+ feet.

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