9 people survive when boat capsizes in Lake Tahoe

By Kathryn Reed

Nine people are lucky to be alive after their boat was swamped with water and overturned in Lake Tahoe on Saturday.

When El Dorado County’s boat team arrived about one mile off shore from Dollar Point they found six people clinging to the hull of the boat, while three had been pulled on board a sailboat.

Sheriff’s Lt. Pete Van Arnum told Lake Tahoe News, “These people were from out of the area. They didn’t know about the danger of Tahoe and wind.”

Saturday was the most blustery of the three this holiday weekend. The boat patrol guys said it looked like the ocean on May 25.

Van Arnum also said the rental boat out of Sunnyside had “way too many” people for the size of watercraft, which was a ski boat.

Deputy Damian Frisby jumped in the frigid water to put life jackets on some of the people and assisted one woman to the sheriff’s boat. All had been in the water about 40 minutes before being pulled out by the sheriff’s and Coast Guard teams just after 2pm.

Van Arnum did not have the ages of those who were rescued or their hometown. All were taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

The sheriff’s search and rescue team was busy Sunday night with two incidents. One rescue was near Mt. Tallac and the other above Echo Lake in Desolation Wilderness. Everyone was successfully rescued.