2 Young Girls Drown After Getting Trapped Under Sinking Boat

Authorities said two girls, 3 and 5, drowned after a boat capsized in a Texas lake over the weekend,

On the evening of Sunday, June 22, Henderson County Sheriff Deputies and the Tool Volunteer Fire Department responded to a call about a boat that overturned in Cedar Creek Lake, Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse confirmed to PEOPLE.

“There were numerous people on a boat which lost power and capsized due to being overloaded and windy on Cedar Creek Lake,” Hillhouse added, sharing that the young girls “got caught under the capsized boat while it sank and drowned.”

The boat was carrying 10 adults and two children at the time of the incident, according to Fox affiliate KDFW, which reported that the boat was returning to a family waterfront home.

“The Cedar Creek Lake can get extremely rough,” Hillhouse told ABC affiliates KLTV. “The older folks, you know the adults, jumped in the water and was able to swim off to the shore.”

Texas Game Wardens, which is investigating, said in a statement to PEOPLE that the children were wearing life jackets at the time. 

“This is an ongoing investigation and no additional details are available at this time,” they added.

A resident told ABC affiliate WFAA of the rough water conditions that Sunday evening. 

“It was so bad my daughter and my brother and I had to leave,” the witness recalled. “It was hitting the grass behind us.”

Responders later were able to upright the boat and find the two girls’ bodies, KDFW reported. 

“It’s tragic when it’s an adult, and when we had the two children, that’s hard on everybody,” said Hillhouse, per WFAA.

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“The children being 3 and 5, they’re too young,” Lt. Randall Newkirk, one of the first responders called to the scene, told KDFW. “They don’t have the strength that we have, the lung capacity that we have. And I think that they got sucked into that air pocket under the hull of the boat. Unfortunately, it was a tragedy on that one.”

Newkirk added that he was still absorbing what happened, telling the outlet: “Situations like this make you realize how precious your babies are to you.”