Two young campers were killed in Yosemite National Park this morning when a oak tree's limb fell onto their tent as they slept.
According to Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman, the two minors were in a tent in Yosemite Valley's Upper Pines Campground when the limb fell at around 5 a.m. Friday.
"Park Rangers responded to the campground to provide medical assistance," Gediman said, "yet both minors were deceased."
Details on the victims are still unknown, as "the names, ages, and places of residence of the victims are not being released," the National Park Service said in a statement, and NBC4 reports that as of 12:30 this afternoon, "the Stanislaus County Corner had not yet received the bodies and couldn't offer any more information."
According to KTLA, the Upper Pines Campground is "largely wooded" and "is regularly booked within minutes of reservations becoming available." It contains 238 campsites, and either near capacity or full when the tragedy occurred, the Associated Press reports.
"August is peak season at Yosemite," the Chron reports, "where more than a half million people visit during the month, most spending time in the picturesque Valley" where this morning's incident occurred.
The LA Times reported in May that over 12 million trees in California national forests have died as a result of the current drought. According to the National Weather Service, things have been especially dry in Yosemite, temperatures in the 80s and 90s all of July and August. Temps hit a high of 97 in the park yesterday, the NWS says.
However, it would be premature to blame the drought for this one, as Gediman says an investigation must still be conducted to determine why the limb fell.