‘The water was just screaming,’ says witness of boat tragedy that killed eight

The skies were as blue as the famous waters of Lake Tahoe when Gloria Brigantino and her friends decided to anchor and get a rum cocktail. It was starting to feel chilly, and winds were picking up.

On shore, a band was playing, and people were swimming – children running around in their swimsuits as the first official weekend of summer kicked off in this popular California holiday spot.

It seemed that within minutes on Saturday that everything changed. A storm moved in, sending tents and canopies flying. White-capped water and 8ft (2.5m) swells caused multiple boats to capsize, including a 27ft vessel filled with tourists.

On Monday, officials confirmed two more people aboard that boat were found dead – bringing the death toll to eight.

The victims were identified by the El Dorado County Sherrif’s Office on Tuesday, their ages ranging from 37 to 73 years old.

They are: Paula Bozinovich, 71, Terry Pickles, 73, Joshua Antony Pickles, 37, Peter Bayes, 72, Timothy O’Leary, 71, Theresa Giullari, 66, James Guck, 69, and Stephen Lindsay, 63.

Ms Brigantino, who was visiting the popular alpine lake between California and Nevada with friends from Texas and California, watched as boats crashed into each other, ripping from their anchors and smashing onto shore. The howling winds that reached 35mph (56km/h) even brought in a brief snow.

She watched safely on land as the boat she and her friends had been aboard capsized, sinking some of her group’s personal belongings.

“Some owners of the boats were crying as their boats were wrecked,” she told the BBC, adding that people risked their lives to help charter boats unload passengers as people were frantically trying to get off the water amid the worsening conditions.

By then the band had packed up and fled. Their stage was now underwater, she said.

“I could smell gas leaking, some gentlemen helped take passengers off a pontoon boat that got stuck in the shore,” Ms Brigantino said. “The waves just bashed it so rapidly they ran off, fell off, many were crying.”

Within 35 minutes of coming ashore, she says she counted nine boats piled in front of them.

Ms Brigantino is a self-described cowgirl and was away with her friends who all work in the Western industry with horses. They were there to have fun and help a friend make Western-themed social media content. Photos and videos from their trip showed the group dancing with drinks and posing in festive hats on the boat before the storm.

Ms Brigantino said she grew up in Lake Tahoe and knows the weather can change fast.

“It happened suddenly. The water was just screaming toward the shore,” she said. “It was bad.”

The poor weather was forecast, Ms Brigantino says, but no-one expected a squall of such force. She and others lamented they hadn’t seen a storm like that in the normally serene Lake Tahoe in decades, if ever.

Authorities on Monday announced they had found two additional bodies after a gold 27ft tourist boat capsized.

Ten people from that vessel fell into the water around 15:00 local time on Saturday and only two were found alive, according to the Coast Guard.

The accident happened in the south-western corner of Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America. The area is known for its sunshine – an alpine lake surrounded by mountains in the Sierra Nevada.

The storm was gone almost as quickly as it arrived.

Ms Brigantino’s photos and videos show the grey skies and massive swells disappearing by 16:30, with sunshine and clear sapphire waters returning to Lake Tahoe.