Officials praise Boy Scouts for actions at camp

The boys had taken part in a mock emergency drill the day before the tornado hit.

BLENCOE, Iowa (AP) — When the howling winds finally died down, the Boy Scouts — true to their motto, “Be Prepared” — sprang into action.

Putting their first-aid training to use, they applied tourniquets and gauze to the injured. Some began digging victims from the rubble of a collapsed fireplace. And others broke into an equipment shed, seized chain saws and other tools, and began clearing fallen trees from a road.

Dozens of the boys, ages 13 to 18, were hailed for their bravery and resourcefulness Thursday, the morning after a twister flattened their camp in Iowa and killed four of their comrades.

“There were some real heroes at this Scout camp,” Gov. Chet Culver said, adding that he believes the Scouts saved lives while they waited for paramedics to cut through the trees and reach the camp a mile into the woods.

The 93 boys, all elite Scouts attending a weeklong leadership training session, had taken part in a mock emergency drill with 25 staff members just a day before the twister hit.

“They knew what to do, they knew where to go, and they prepared well,” said Lloyd Roitstein, an executive with the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Killed were Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, and Josh Fennen, 13, Sam Thomsen, 13, and Ben Petrzilka, 14, all of Omaha, Neb. Roitstein said the four were in one of three buildings where Scouts sought shelter.

At least a dozen people remained hospitalized Thursday with everything from bruises to spine and head injuries.

At the campsite, a pickup truck had been tossed on its side. Tree limbs rested on top of the Scouts’ tents. Trees were flattened. And the meeting room where the Scouts had sought shelter was a pile of cinder blocks and chimney bricks.

Boy Scout officials said the campers had heard the severe weather alerts but decided not to leave because a storm was on the way.

“They were watching the weather and monitoring with a weather radio, listening for updates,” said Deron Smith, a national spokesman for the organization. “The spot they were at was the lowest spot of camp. It was deemed to be the safest place.”

On the other side of the state, 3,200 homes were evacuated from flood-stricken Cedar Rapids, where rescuers removed people with boats, officials estimated 100 blocks were under water, and a railroad bridge over the flooded Cedar River collapsed.

In Albert Lea, Minn., 90 miles south of Minneapolis, a man died Thursday after his vehicle plunged from a washed-out road and was submerged in floodwaters.

Also Thursday, several Kansas communities began cleaning up from tornadoes a day earlier that killed at least two people, destroyed much of the small town of Chapman, and caused extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus.

Meanwhile, tales of heroism emerged from the Iowa camp.

Roitstein said a group of Scouts pulled the camp ranger and his family from their destroyed home. Doug Rothgeb of Omaha said his 15-year-old son emerged from a ditch where he had taken cover, then joined other Scouts to break into the equipment shed.

Fourteen-year-old Zach Jessen of Fremont, Neb., said that before the storm struck, someone spotted the rotation in the clouds and a siren sounded in the multipurpose building, which had tables, a TV and a fireplace. Zach said he and others managed to get Scouts out of their tents and indoors just before the tornado hit.

Zach said shortly afterward, the door on the building flew open and he heard someone yelling to get under the tables.

“All of a sudden, the tornado came and took the building,” Zach said. “It sounded like a giant freight train going right over the top of you.”

Ethan Hession, 13, said he crawled under a table with his friend.

“I just remember looking over at my friend, and all of a sudden he just says to me, ‘Dear God, save us,”’ he said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Ethan said the Scouts’ first-aid training immediately compelled them to act.

“We were prepared,” he said. “We knew that we need to place tourniquets on wounds that were bleeding too much. We knew we need to apply pressure and gauze. We had first-aid kits, we had everything. We knew about this, we knew how to do it.”