While most of us were having a great time celebrating the Fourth of July, passengers aboard a yacht in Long Island were smack in the middle of  a nightmare. A boat carrying 27 passengers, including three children capsized after a wave hit it, sending passengers into the water and leaving some stuck inside the boat, including the three children who were instantly killed.

ABC News reports:

Three children in the boat's cabin -- David Aureliano, 12, and two girls, Harley Treanor, 11, and Victoria Gaines, 8 -- were killed.

The first victim was found in the water shortly after the distress call came in. Divers located the two others in the vessel hours after it sank, Lack said early this morning.

Danielle Barbone tried to save as many people as she could, including the mother of one of the girls killed.

"We just started plucking them out like ants. Just one, two, three -- whoever we could get on," she told ABC News affiliate WABC. "There was a grandmother. She was floating. She couldn't swim. There was no life vests on the boat.."

She said the child's mother was screaming her daughter's name.

Richard Valicenti, owner and president of Bridge Marine Sales & Marina, said today that a 34-foot boat with 27 people aboard was "overpopulated".

There's a law that requires kids under 12 to wear life vests when they're on a boat it's unfortunate these kids didn't have them on. My thoughts & prayers go out to their families.