Fierce storm surprises Wisconsin campers; child killed

SIREN, Wis. — A fierce thunderstorm swept through a rural Wisconsin county that was packed with holiday campers, toppling trees that killed an 11-year-old girl and injuring more than three dozen people.

The storm moved across Minnesota and Wisconsin on Friday, packing winds approaching 80 mph. In northern Wisconsin’s Burnett County, a local official says at least 37 people went to hospitals after the storm toppled hundreds of trees and left several thousand utility customers without power.

Julie Kittleson with the county’s emergency response center said Saturday that the storm came at one of the worst times of the year for Burnett County. The rural area has about 15,000 residents but its lakes and rivers about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis attract up to 80,000 vacationers on a holiday weekend.