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Thirty tornadoes hit Midwest, kill four at Boy Scout camp

A tornado ripped across a Boy Scout camp in Iowa on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring others, a scout official said.

The deadly twister was one of more than 30 that roared through four midwestern states on Wednesday. More tornadoes were feared for the region on Wednesday night.

Lloyd Roitstein, president of the Boy Scouts of Mid-America Council, told CNN that the Little Sioux Scout Ranch was “virtually destroyed” after the twister ripped tents off the ground at the 730 hectare compound.

“There’s nothing left in there,” Roitstein told the news network. “There are four confirmed dead, numerous injured.”

Ninety-three campers and 25 adults were attending the Little Sioux camp when the tornado struck, said Tina Potthoff, spokeswoman for the Iowa Emergency Operations Center.

Potthoff said in addition to the four dead, at least 20 and possibly up to 40 people were injured.

Iowa officials said the state National Guard had been mobilized to assist in search and rescue operations, work that was complicated by the heavily forested area where the camp was located and continaued lightning and heavy rain.

The scouts had been attending an annual “Pohuk Pride” junior leader training event.

The tornado was one of more than 30 reported late on Wednesday moving across eastern Kansas into Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, the Storm Prediction Center said.

The tornadoes were accompanied by baseball-sized hail and vicious winds and came in addition to rampant flooding that has forced hundreds from their homes in Iowa.
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