Posted on 06/11/2008 6:48:40 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
KCCI is getting early word tonight of a tornado touchdown that hit a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, injuring as many as 40 people. Our sister station in Omaha, KETV, reports that the Boy Scouts confirm four of those injuries are fatalities.
Courtney Greene, a spokeswoman for Governor Chet Culver, says the tornado hit the Little Sioux scout camp. Speaking from the state Emergency Operations Center, which is mobilized because of flooding across Iowa, Greene said authorities have been told of multiple injuries and the potential loss of life.
Hospitals in the area have been told to be on stand-by for injured patients.
The camp is located in western Iowa on the Harrison-Monona county line, north of Council Bluffs.
Greene says a large number of state troopers are on scene and that a search and rescue team has been dispatched to the area from Sioux City. She doesn't know why they are needed, just that local officials asked for the team.
KCCI also learned that DOT crews have been sent to the area with chain saws to help clear a path for rescuers. The tornado downed a large number of trees.
The tornado struck around 7 pm. A line of severe thunderstorms with the threat for tornadoes and heavy rain is sweeping across western Iowa this evening and will enter central Iowa later tonight.
Stay tuned to KCCI-TV and KCCI.com for updates.
What tragedy - nothing in the manual about tornados.
No there isn’t. I am a Cubmaster and these sorts of things are not typically things we teach the scouts. However, being active in Skywarn, I do a severe weather presentation for our scouts. Absolutely awful - my heart goes out to these boys and their families.
What a cruel damned world.
What’s the Scout Motto?
Trees and debris flying through the air at 200mph isn’t part of it. Have a heart.
Ever been near a tornado?
They don’t come any more ignorant than you.
“What’s the Scout Motto?”
Be Prepared
Not good at all. Prayers to all the families.
Our daughter went to a church-related camporee in Oshkosh Wisconsin in 1999 or 2000. They had a tornado warning for the area (not a watch)and I really got ticked off at the leaders from our mid Texas group that they didn’t even leave their tents (there was other shelter accessible). Yeah, tornado warnings are frequent in Central Texas but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
While I would hope Scouts living in tornado alley would be more prepared for something like this as opposed to scouts in say, Oregon - finding shelter when a large tornado comes at you when you are in a camp (the funds generally do not support building a storm shelter and most buildings are of simple construction), it doesn’t matter how prepared you are. Scouts and Scouters probably died on 9/11 - no amount of preparation would have made a difference.
You’re taking it wrong. Let’s hope the Boy Scouts were prepared.
I hope you are correct - but those camps unfortunately are just small cabins (ours has teepees and such) - hardly shelter from an EF2 let alone anything stronger. I could not imagine what those boys and their families are going through. Looks like the media is being kept out. The District Executive confirmed 4 dead and many injuries. Looks like not enough info is available and still storms on the way.
We need to keep these scouts and their families in our prayers!
I would like to believe that many if not all the Scouts thought quickly and made it to safety.
I suppose being prepared would have been to have a radio on hand to hear the warning advisory.
Then what?
Given the landscape and lack of solid structures, anything short of full body armor or a concrete bunker would leave them to nothing more than the grace of God.
All we can do now is pray for them and their families.
If I came across as being brash..........
If ??
When I was a kid, several of our local Boy Scouts (from the troop that my brothers had been in and my dad had been a scout master for) were killed by lightening during a campout. It was horrible as is this situation.
I feel for this community and my prayers are with them.
How terrible! My heart goes out to the families.
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