Such a horrible, sad moment.
The "captain" survived, but the driver didn't. That was Bob Williams, who is well known around Branson, as well as being a local minister. Well loved guy that I've heard wonderful things about.
There was a storm watch posted, and severe thunderstorm warnings went up about 40 minutes before it happened, but it's likely that the 2 ducks that were on the water had left base to start their trip before that. No clue if the warnings were relayed to them when on the road or not, but based on them both being on the water I have a feeling they weren't.
I know when it hit our place, it went from a beautiful, gorgeous day to incredibly fierce winds almost instantly. If they didn't know before hand, then it would have caught them completely by surprise on the water. It tore down branches and trees around us, and you can see in the videos how harsh it was on the water.
I'm afraid that even if everyone in it put on life jackets it wouldn't have helped. As others have pointed out, the flaps were all down and sealed, which only left the back door open and no other way out when it went down. And it looks like once it started to capsize it went down pretty quick. :-(
I know reddit is ablaze with all of those who know better than everyone else. And had a couple out of line comments on my video I did that I had to delete. Hurting for everyone that is affected by it.