All kids accounted for after tree falls at camp near Yosemite
All children have been accounted for and one adult staff member is missing at a Jewish youth camp near Yosemite, where a tree fell near a building Wednesday morning.
About 8:30 a.m., a tree tipped over at Camp Tawonga in Tuolumne County, triggering a mass casualty response from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Firefighters and U.S. Forest Service park rangers worked through the morning to try to remove the tree.
Four adults were injured and airlifted to nearby hospitals, said Gail Witzlsteiner, spokeswoman for Sonora Regional Medical Center. The two patients taken to Sonora were 20- and 21-year-old women who suffered minor injuries, Witzlsteiner said.
One camp staff member is unaccounted for, the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. A hospital official told The Times one person had been killed.
The condition of the others injured was not immediately known. As many as 20 people were initially feared injured in the incident, officials said.
Camp Tawonga is a 160-acre Jewish youth camp set in the middle fork of the Tuolumne River in the Stanislaus National Forest outside of Yosemite National Park. There are about 160 employees who work in the camp’s summer program, according to the camp’s website.
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