Reuters: U.S.: One dead, more than dozen hurt as storm rips through baseball party tent

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One dead, more than dozen hurt as storm rips through baseball party tent Apr 29th 2012, 00:40 Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:40pm EDT (Reuters) - One person was killed and more than a dozen others injured on Saturday when a thunderstorm packing high winds blew down a beer tent on to baseball fans celebrating after a St. Louis Cardinals' game, police said. Several of those injured when the tent blew over were listed in critical condition at area hospitals, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Sherri Bruns told Reuters. Others were being treated for less serious injuries, she said. The person killed was identified only as a male and the exact cause of his death was not immediately clear. A spokeswoman for St. Louis University Hospital, the nearest trauma center to the stadium, could not be immediately reached for comment on the condition of patients being treated there. St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told local television station KMOX that a total of 17 people were injured, five of whom were in serious or critical condition. The tent was set up as a beer garden at Kilroy's Sports Bar about a block from Busch Stadium, home to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and was blown off its moorings by strong wind gusts as the storm moved through the city. "I thought a train fell off the track," the bar's owner, Art Randall, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. "We all ducked for cover. Everything was going sideways. I had metal chairs ripping across the beer garden." The newspaper said the tent had been permitted by the city but that inspectors were on the scene trying to determine its make and installation date. The National Weather Service posted a tornado warning for the St. Louis area Saturday, with a risk of baseball-sized hail, and heavy rain fell across the area. Radar images showed more thunderstorm and supercell activity in the area in the late afternoon and evening. Bruns, the police officer, said the storm, which brought wind, heavy rain and some hail, moved quickly through the St. Louis area. The storm struck about an hour after the end of the Cardinal's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Following the incident, Cardinals fans quickly took to social media to commiserate. "Kilroy's was where I was during Game 7 of the World Series. Man, that is just horrible. Thoughts to those people and their families," Renee Bryan tweeted. Others posted links to news articles about the incident or concerns that friends may have been inside the tent when it was knocked over. The Cardinals, last year's National League champions, won the 2011 World Series in seven games over American League's Texas Rangers. On Saturday, the Cardinals beat the Brewers 7-3. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Burns and Todd Eastham) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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