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‘Did we find the life jackets?’: Video shows houseboat taking on water at Lake Powell

Posted at 9:04 PM, May 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-31 23:06:50-04

Please wait a few moments for the embedded video to load in the player below. Warning: this footage contains a few instances of profanity.

LAKE POWELL — A Utah man shared video from a trip to Lake Powell that took a frightening turn as a houseboat began taking on water.

Jimmy Rex of Orem posted video of the incident on Facebook, and the footage has been shared more than 2,000 times since Wednesday morning.

Rex tells Fox 13 News they were heading out onto the lake around 10:30 a.m. on May 27 when they noticed they were taking on more and more water, and eventually they saw the front of the boat was beginning to sink.

They can be heard saying in the video the US Coast Guard is following and is bringing a pump to help them clear some of the water out.

“Did we find the life jackets?” Rex can be heard saying later in the video as water splashes over the sinking prow of the boat.

The video shows the water level rising aboard the houseboat, and later it shows passengers jumping from the houseboat onto a Coast Guard vessel.

Rex said there were about 15 people on the boat, and there were no injuries.

Rex said he isn’t sure what happened to cause the issue, but he said the Coast Guard told them they inadvertently kept the boat from sinking completely by keeping the throttle up instead of stopping or slowing down. Rex said the cause of the issue is still under investigation and the vessel is in for repairs.

The end of the video shows the houseboat being towed out of the lake on a trailer.

It appears Rex is taking a lighthearted approach to the issue, as the footage was set to “My Heart Will Go On” from the “Titanic” soundtrack. He said he is not afraid to get back out on the water and will return to the lake once his boat is fixed.