Lightning hurts campers

[Lee Borgersen]

                  Lightning hurts campers on Crooked Lake

             Four teen girls in Outward Bound group knocked unconscious

  .......
An injured teen was transported by stretcher at the U.S. Forest Service seaplane base in Ely following a rescue from Crooked Lake last Sunday.

CROOKED LAKE— A powerful bolt of lightning knocked four teenage girls unconscious and left most of their group with extensive burns as a line of strong storms moved through the border country last Sunday evening.

The eight-person canoe party, on the sixth day of a 28-day Outward Bound experience, had set up camp on an island near Sunday Bay as high winds from the approaching storms made it too difficult to safely paddle on the big border lake.

As the storm approached, the group, comprised of two adult leaders and six teenage girls, took safety measures against possible lightning strike, by separating themselves and sitting on their life vests to insulate them from the ground.

“They were doing a lightning drill at the time,” said Jon Olson of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad. “It probably saved their lives.”

The lightning bolt struck a large white pine about 100-150 feet away from where the group was riding out the storm. The blast stripped the tree of branches, blew 2x4 width chunks of wood from the trunk and even blew bark off of nearby trees.

The force of the blast also threw one of the girls in the air in addition to knocking four of them unconscious. Most of the other girls, ranging in age from 14-16, also suffered fairly extensive second degree burns to the backs of their legs and buttocks, according to Olson.

The group used a satellite phone shortly after the incident to request medical help. But extremely high winds that continued to blow in the wake of the storms made an immediate rescue impossible.

Rescuers were able to make it to the party about 5:30 a.m. on Monday, using a U.S. Forest Service Beaver floatplane. A Forest Service pilot transported personnel from the county rescue squad, the Ely Ambulance and Outward Bound, to the scene, where EMTs conducted initial assessment of the injuries. They later brought the five most injured girls out first, and transported them to the Ely Hospital, where they were admitted for observation. Another girl and one of the adult leaders came out in a second evacuation, leaving one of the group leaders behind to wait for recovery of all of the gear by another Outward Bound party.

Olson said the girls were all in pretty good spirits despite their ordeal. “They were lucky,” he said. “The tree was just obliterated by the lightning. There were pieces everywhere.”

Fatality in Cook County

The same line of storms toppled a large white pine onto a campsite at Duncan Lake, in the far eastern end of the Boundary Waters, killing the brother and severely injuring the nephew of U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, who represents Minnesota’s First District.

Craig Anthony Walz, 43, of Rochester, was with his son and another man and his son, when the storm toppled the tree. Walz was a math and science teacher at St. Charles High School.

A second individual was injured on Clove Lake, by a falling tree, suffering injuries to his upper body.




An injured teen was transported by stretcher at the U.S. Forest Service seaplane base in Ely following a rescue from Crooked Lake last Sunday.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[LPS]

Like I said we camped at Bear Head on Thur and Fri.  It hailed a little and rained on us Sat morn.  After we got home it looks like all heck broke loose over there yesterday afternoon.  Man the map was lit up with lightning strikes.  Glad we were out of there and hope noone else gets hurt.