Tragedy Strikes Boy Scout Summer Camp

Teen killed after tree falls on tent
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 26, 2018 9:02 AM CDT
Boy Scout Killed by Falling Tree
A camping area at a Michigan Boy Scout camp is shown on Aug. 22, 2016.   (J. Scott Park/Jackson Citizen Patriot-Mlive.com via AP)

The last week of a Boy Scout summer camp in Georgia ended in tragedy when a tree fell on a Texas teen's tent, killing him. The Houston Chronicle reports the incident took place at the Bert Adams Boy Scout Camp in Covington, and that a weather alert had been issued not long before the tree collapsed on the 14-year-old's tent, per Jeff Alexander, a rep for the Newton County Sheriff's Office. Alexander tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the wind and rain started getting heavy as the teen and another Scout made their way to the canvas-wall tent; they were inside it when the tree fell.

Dozens of other trees came down around the 1,300-acre-plus camp, but there were no other immediate reported injuries, Alexander tells FOX 5 Atlanta. "This is a very difficult time for our Scouting family," the head of the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement, citing a "weather-related incident" in the boy's death, per the Covington News. "We offer our deepest condolences to the victim and his family, and we will support them in any way we can." June 30 was set to be the camp's last day, per its website. (More Boy Scouts stories.)

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