Four members of a family from northernCaliforniawere among eight people killed over the weekend when a boat capsized on Lake Tahoe in California during a sudden and fierce thunderstorm.
Josh Pickles, 37, of San Francisco, his parents, 73-year-old Terry Pickles and 71-year-old Paula Bozinovich of Redwood City, and his uncle, 72-year-old Peter Bayes, of Lincoln, died on Saturday, according to a family statement.
The younger Pickles was an executive with DoorDash, the San Francisco Standardreported.
“No words can express the pain and anguish we feel knowing their lives were lost during what was meant to be a joyful time on the lake,” Josh Pickles’ widow, Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard, said in the statement on Tuesday. “Our hearts go out to those who tragically lost their lives and the two survivors of this unexpected and deadly storm on Lake Tahoe.”
Two people were rescued immediately after the boat flipped over. Their identities and conditions were not known on Tuesday.
Ten people were onboard the 27ft (8-metre) gold Chris-Craft vessel when it capsized on Saturday afternoon near DL Bliss state park on the lake’s south-west edge as the storm whipped up high waves, US coast guard officials said. Six bodies were recovered later on Saturday, a seventh was found on Sunday evening, and the eighth was located on Monday, according to the El Dorado county sheriff’s office.
Also killed were Timothy O’Leary, 71, of Auburn, California; Theresa Giullari, 66, and James Guck, 69, of Honeoye, New York; and Stephen Lindsay, 63, of Springwater, New York, the coroner’s office said on Tuesday.
The intensity of the thunderstorm surprised even forecasters, who had predicted rain but nothing like the 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 (56km/h) and waves swelled up more than 8ft (2.5 metres).
“We weren’t expecting it to be so strong,” Chyba said on Monday. He said temperatures in the area were far below normal for this time of year, which could have contributed to the unstable air mass.
Drowning and other accidental deaths have occurred in recent years on the lake, but boating accidents with numerous fatalities are rare. The South Lake Tahoe police department told KCRA-TV in 2022 that there are an average of six deaths on the lake each summer, though there were a record 15 fatalities in 2021.