Elderly Man Dies After Party Boat Carrying 53 People Capsizes During Thunderstorm

An 80-year-old Texas man died after a double-decker party boat carrying 53 people capsized in Lake Conroe, during a thunderstorm.

Karl Katzenberger, of Montgomery, died at a hospital Saturday, Aug.14, after the vessel, the Lake Conroe Queen, which was 40 minutes into a 90-minute cruise, capsized about 40 miles north of Houston.

Fifty-three people were on board, Kirk McDonnell, a spokesman for the state Parks and Wildlife Department, confirmed in a statement to NBC News.

Video and pictures of the scene showed the boat on its side in the water. Passengers and local residents said the incident happened at about 8 p.m. Saturday.

People who live nearby said they rushed to the scene and jumped into the waters to pull some of the victims out of the lake.

"By the time we got down here, the boat pretty much capsized and everybody was floating in the water," a local resident, Brock O’Rourke told KPRC.

"I mean, man, it was a pretty rough scene because the waves were five or six feet at least and we were slowly pulling people back."

"And finally, the police got here, and they dove into the water and checked, and it seems like we got everybody accounted for," he said

Diana Elizalde, who was on the boat said: "I made sure the little ones were out first. There were probably more than four of them. Other than that, they were less than five years old," said

Responding medical personnel examined the rescued passengers and those covered in diesel fuel from the accident were rinsed off.

"Decontamination was then done to get the diesel fuel off the passengers before they were transported to their original starting point where all their cars were parked," Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough wrote on Facebook.

Katzenberger and a woman, who had a panic attack, were taken to a hospital. Katzenberger was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Poor weather condition is believed to be the cause of the incident, however, an investigation is ongoing, Keough said.

"So much bravery and teamwork tonight helped save so many from what could have been a complete disaster and a mass rescue operation didn’t turn into a mass casualty event," Keough wrote.