Lake Tahoe boat tragedy: How a sudden storm left 8 dead

On Saturday morning across South Lake Tahoe, winds were light. Skies were clear. Temperatures began to climb into the upper 50s.

The day before, the National Weather Service had issued a wind advisory, but on Saturday, it appeared the weather had finally calmed. Forecasts showed a chance for rain and and an even smaller possibility of thunderstorms, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary for regular boaters at the High Sierra lake.

Hundreds of boaters and anglers headed out.

And initially, it appeared to be a good day out on the water. Joby Cefalu said he and his group almost immediately caught four fish when they stopped along the lake’s east shores, where he recalled glassy waters.

But then around 2 p.m., something changed.

Cefalu — a lifelong Tahoe boater and co-owner of Mile High Fishing Charters — noticed some whitecaps forming. The wind also was quickly picking up, blowing in from the north, which wasn’t typical.

“I told my customers, ‘Essentially, we’re looking at probably 2- or 3-foot chop by the time we get a half an hour from here, and from there it’s going to probably be a little bit worse,’” Cefalu recalled saying as he headed the boat he was piloting back toward the marina. “Within 15 minutes, there was 5- to 6-foot chop, and then within a half hour, it was 8- to 10-foot chop.”

The next two hours would be a race against time and Mother Nature as conditions on the lake rapidly deteriorated, faster than many locals and longtime mariners had ever seen. In a matter of minutes, several boats on South Lake Tahoe capsized — in at least two cases, passengers were plunged into cold and choppy waters. Eight of the 10 occupants on one of those boats near D.L. Bliss State Park would die in the dangerous conditions, despite rescue efforts.

Many struggled to get their boats ashore against the relentless waves: In some case, onlookers helped frantic passengers get to safety, while other unmanned vessels broke free of their moorings, some sinking or crashing into nearby piers or other boats. Several buoys washed ashore. Dozens of people were treated for hypothermia after harrowing boat rides through the perilous conditions.

“It’s the worst situation I’ve seen on the lake,” said South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace, who has lived and boated in the area for decades. She commended first responders, the local boating community and bystanders for stepping up during the crisis, noting that South Lake Tahoe police officers and firefighters were able to rescue 10 people whose boat capsized near Tahoe Keys Pier.

“It was a lot of people helping people,” she said.

The sudden storm on Lake Tahoe on Saturday left damage in its wake. Crews were dispatched to clean up oil from overturned boats.

(California Office of Spill Prevention and Response)

One group could not be entirely saved, however, as their boat capsized and eight people died. Wallace called it an “unspeakable tragedy.”

The Coast Guard and El Dorado Sheriff’s Office responded around 3 p.m. Saturday to the shores of D.L. Bliss State Park, in southwest Lake Tahoe, where someone had seen 10 people in the water after a boat capsized. Waves in the area were reported around 8 feet high, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Initially, officials were able to rescue two people, who were transported to a local hospital, but six others were found dead, officials said. On Sunday, rescue teams recovered a seventh body, and Monday afternoon, the last missing boater was also found dead, sheriff’s officials reported.

The Coast Guard said the group had been aboard a 27-foot gold Chris-Craft vessel. Few other details about the trip, including the boat’s owner or who was on board, have not been shared publicly.

The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Times, but other officials said the crash remained under investigation. None of the victims had been identified.

Although Tahoe officials always warn people to take precautions on the water and monitor the weather, officials and locals said the rapid switch in conditions felt unprecedented.

Between noon and 3 p.m., winds in South Lake Tahoe went from 5 or 10 mph to 35 to 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature dropped from the mid-50s to the upper 30s. And waves appeared to grow by several feet, with reports of swells or chops hitting 7 to 10 feet. At some points during the storm, it even snowed.

“This particular storm popped up pretty quickly,” said Matthew Chyba, a weather service meteorologist based in Reno, which includes the Tahoe region. Chyba confirmed that there were no advisories issued for Tahoe on Saturday but called the storm that rolled in an exceptionally bad thunderstorm, which are hard to predict and have the ability to create short-term, dangerous conditions.

“It was very localized,” Chyba said. “And unfortunately it was in a place where people were recreating.”

Cefalu, 57, said he could remember one or two other days on the lake with similarly bad conditions, but they didn’t develop as rapidly as on Saturday, or become as hazardous.

“I’m on the water a great deal of days of the year. … I’ve been in just about every type of condition, and that was just something I’ve never seen happen so fast,” Cefalu said. “It was just a tragic day on Lake Tahoe.”

Adding to the danger was the cold water, which remained below 60 degrees all day Saturday, according to the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at UC Davis, dropping slightly into the low 50s at some points. Officials warn that water below 70 degrees is cold enough to cause hypothermia if a person is exposed to the conditions for a long period of time.

Once Cefalu got his charter safely back to the marina, he soon saw that many boaters were in trouble — even if they had made it back ashore.

“There was just a massive amount of people that were in hypothermia or shock,” Cefalu said. He said he worked with marina staff and other locals to set up a type of triage system to help get people dry and then, gradually and safely, warm. At the Tahoe Keys Marina, he said, he worked for almost two hours to respond to the needs of at least 60 people — and he estimated there were many other marinas and docks dealing with similar situations.

Conor Bugbee, 32, was vacationing with his family at Camp Richardson in South Lake Tahoe when the sunny afternoon quickly turned. He said boats started to break from their moorings, and “one by one they started crashing into shore.”

He said a pontoon boat made it to the beach — with a dead motor and no life vests in sight — so he jumped into action to make sure the frightened occupants got off the boat safely.

“It was super eerie, you were outside tanning in the sun and next thing you knew you could see your breath,” Bugbee, a Sacramento resident, said. He called it a “freak storm,” unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

Wallace wasn’t on the water Saturday, but she was outside nearby and said the shift in weather was unlike any that she could remember in her three decades living there.

“That has to be the single craziest Sierra storm to come through here,” Wallace said. “It was very violent and very turbulent, and then it was gone.”

By Saturday evening, skies were again blue and the waters calm. But the damage was widespread.

As of Monday, Wallace said most boats had been removed from beaches, retied or taken in for repairs, but city crews were still working to respond to debris and sand loss. The community was still struggling to grasp the eight boater deaths.

The only takeaway right now, Cefalu said, must be more awareness around safety precautions, preparations and education.

“We’re stuck in the middle of Sierra Nevada so the weather is very unpredictable,” he said. “It’s really important that the recreational boater — or even professional boater — recognize that when whitecaps turn up so fast … it’s time to put on your life jacket and get off the water.”

Wallace encouraged people — even those who have boated a lot — to hire a seasoned captain when they visit Tahoe and want to get out on the water.

“Our lake is just different,” she said. “It’s amazingly beautiful and peaceful looking, but it is anything but [that] in circumstances like what happened Saturday.”