Outing, MN (Vicinity) Tornado Damage, Aug 1969

KILLER TORNADOES HIT STATE, AT LEAST 10 DIE AT OUTING.

SEARCH CONTINUES IN STORM DEBRIS.

They are still looking for the dead and injured in the Outing area today after tornadoes yesterday afternoon slashed a vicious path that left at least 10 dead and scores injured in their wake.
Hardest hit was the Rosevelt lake area just north of Outing.
The twister smashed to kindling, the SIMMONS resort, killing two vacationers and injuring 12.
Just across the lake it ripped into three cabins at the Bethany Bible camp, apparently killing seven. At noon today five of the bodies had been recovered and two were still missing.
At the Roosevelt Narrows just southwest of the SIMMONS resort, the twister upended a boat with two fishermen and both of them drowned.
To the northeast, the whirling funnel completely devastated a cabin on remote Reservoir lake, killing a two-year-old girl who was picked up and hurled into the lake some 20 feet from shore. Her body was recovered this morning by skindivers of the elite Minnesota Para-Rescue team. They found her in about four feet of water.
The mother of the little girl and her two young sisters and a brother were taken to safety late last night after a heroic march through the tangled woods by the children's grandmother and then a Herculean wood cutting task by a group of volunteers, conservation workers and highway patrolmen.
Forces of the Cass County sheriff's office, the Civil Air Patrol, Civil Defense, the National Guard, highway patrol, conservation department workers, the Para-Rescue team, the Red Cross the Hennepin County Sheriff's office rescue unit were all pooling efforts today to find out if there were more dead and injured in the remote areas.
The Hennepin county sheriff's office sent a helicopter and a full rescue team into the area. The helicopter was being used to spot areas where cabins and houses had been hit and then rescue units headed into the area any way they could get there -- by CAP seaplane, boat, jeep, trucks and in many cases, on foot.
The operation is being directed by Sheriff BILL MERRILL of Cass county. The command headquarters has been set up at the Outing Village hall.
Volunteer women from the area and Salvation Army workers from as far away as Duluth were keeping up a steady flow of coffee, sandwiches and doughnuts to weary officials and volunteers.
Civil Defense officials early this morning began issuing passes for qualified persons to be in the area.
The National Guard was called out last night and 60 Guardsmen today are combining search efforts with guard duty at homes and resorts to prevent looting.
By late forenoon the search efforts of the Para-Rescue team were being concentrated at the Bethany Bible camp.
Some 28 persons were staying in three cabins at this spot.
The twister completely destroyed all three of them. One of the cabins was literally picked up and dumped into the lake along with its occupants.
The bodies of two of these persons had not yet been recovered at noon today.

Continued