Two campers were injured when a large tree fell on their tent in Voyageurs National Park during a raging storm early Saturday.
Officers were called to the campsite on Lake Kabetogama around 5:45 a.m., where a tree had struck a tent with two sleeping campers inside, according to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office. It remains unclear whether high winds or a lightning strike caused the limb to fall.
The campers were transported by boat to a nearby landing, where they were taken by ambulance to the Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls. Both are expected to survive.
A similar incident killed one man in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness last week when a tree fell on him and two others as they sought shelter from a storm. Craig Walz, the 43-year-old brother of U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, died and his teenage son Jacob suffered serious injuries.
Two adults and six children were injured in an indirect lightning strike during a separate incident last week in Sunday Bay on Crooked Lake in the BWCA. They were hospitalized in Ely but appear to be OK.
LIZ SAWYER
