DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa judge has approved a $390,000 state payment to a couple and their child who were seriously injured when a large tree fell on their tent at a state park. The payment will settle a lawsuit alleging the Iowa Department of Natural Resources was negligent in failing to remove the diseased, 98-foot cottonwood tree at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs.

Heavy winds caused the tree to fall on a tent where 23-year-old Alecia Nichols, 25-year-old Timothy Hiers, Jr., and 3-year-old Timothy Hiers III were sleeping in May 2012. Nichols suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage, a crushed pelvis and several fractured vertebrae. She lost hearing in one ear and has undergone multiple surgeries. Her boyfriend and child suffered lacerated spleens and other injuries.