Update: A list of fundraisers going on to aid the boy scouts and their families. The Ben Petrzilka Memorial Fund is specifically to help rebuild the camp and include storm shelters.
Not that it really matters, but I couldn’t help but notice. One of the boys killed in the tornado that hit the Little Sioux Scout Camp in Iowa was a homeschooled boy from Omaha.
Sam Thomsen, 13, of Omaha, loved the Scouts, loved the Nebraska Cornhuskers and was enthusiastic about life.
Sam’s Facebook page lists his interests as Jesus, football, the Huskers, playing Xbox video games and the Roadrunners, a basketball team for home-schooled children. “Go, Roadrunners,” it says.
“He’s just a great kid,” said Jim White, pastor of Southwest Church of Christ, where the Thomsen family are longtime members. “He was a typical teenager, always has a smile on his face. He was just a joy to be around.”
His parents, Larry and Sharon, home schooled Sam and his older sisters, Sara and Lindsay. Omaha World Herald
In case you haven’t heard about it, a tornado went through a boy scout leadership camp in Iowa’s Loess hills, not far from the Nebraska border, killing four and injuring forty eight more of the 93 boys attending. I was standing in the street with most of the rest of my small town watching the storm as this happened. I had just heard a tornado had touched down in Waverly, just north of Lincoln. Our sky looked threatening enough, but to the north it was black with high winds pushing yet another storm into it. Suddenly, the sky overhead changed to green, the clouds slowed and parted. Clear sky was visible and then it closed as the clouds turned on themselves and the wind stopped completely. For a few minutes, it seemed the clouds did not know what to do as they moved first north, then east, then south, then north again. Finally, they made up their minds and turned to the south, picking up speed as the sirens in our town went off.
I went back in the house to find that a tornado had been sighted in Beatrice and to hear the first report of a tornado at the Boy Scout camp. It was thought there were fatalities, but the information was still conflicting and family members were being asked to call in for information.
The next morning, I wanted to throw things at a radio host as he drew suspicion on the camp leaders, accusing them of not protecting the children. As if there is anything you can do when a tornado strikes a campground. All of the boys killed were in one of the shelters near a collapsed chimney. They had taken the only cover available and sometimes there is just nothing you can do. As soon as the tornado passed, boys began clearing debris, digging out survivors as well as the dead and applying first aid to wounds which included severe cuts, bruises and broken bones. They did everything that could be done while waiting for rescue crews to get to a remote area blocked by debris left by a tornado with windspeeds of 145 mph. And while many of the boys remain hospitalized (at least one with a skull fracture), every one but the four killed by the chimney collapse are still alive. Because the boys knew what to do.
Monday would have been Sam’s 14th birthday. He wanted to become a minister.
Hat Tip: Good Gone MAD Souls
Little+Sioux+Falls homeschooling homeschool boy+scouts tornado
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But haven’t you folks been under almost-constant tornado warnings lately? And flood warnings?
I’m sorry the boys died but I do wonder what they were doing camping out this month.
Even if there was some sort of minimal shelter, wouldn’t they have been safer in their homes?
Or not? If the same tornado had hit a well-built home, would the consequences have been the same?
Those of us unfamiliar with tornadoes are wondering. We get hurricanes. I sure wouldn’t send me kids out camping if I thought a huricane was due or suspected.
Nance
Nance, as someone who grew up at the bottom of “tornado alley” I can tell you that Tornado watches and even warnings can be a daily occurrence in the summer. And most often, nothing comes of it. The warning of a big thunderstorm coming (not just probably might possibly) is only a few hours, if that. The warning of a tornado, a few minutes. Not exactly the same thing as a hurricane that you see building on satellite for days beforehand.
If we waited for the permanent “all clear,” no one would do anything from May to November. Not much fun. As sad as it is (and maybe they do need a tornado shelter at camps), I’d hate for my kids to grow up cowering in fear because of what might happen.
Yeah, we have had a few as we always do in the spring. But tornadoes aren’t quite like hurricanes in that they are unpredictable, you don’t know when or where they will occur and you can’t see them in the forecast a week ahead of time. And the chances of being hit by one in any one location are minute. I believe this would have been an F-3 on the enhanced Fujita scale which is fair sized.
On May 22, 2004, we had a series of tornadoes go through…58 confirmed, one of which was an F-4 that destroyed 95% of a neighboring town as well as our local school. No one prepared for it because no one knew it was coming, even though there were 389 tornadoes in 11 days.
In 2004, we had 199 tornadoes over Memorial Day weekend. Lots of people were camping. There were five deaths across the Midwest, including Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky. But there usually is no warning until about 15 minutes before. Any thunderstorm can produce tornadoes. Staying home would mean little would happen out here in the spring and summer despite the low odds that anything would happen.
I think we’re just used to it. States that have hurricanes and earth quakes seem like strange places to live since there is really nowhere to go (at least you have the advantage of warning with hurricanes though.) At least to this Midwestern girl who has listened to the tornado warnings all her life.
Hey, April! You commented while I was trying to find exactly how many tornadoes did come through during the more significant periods I could remember.
We can’t bubble wrap the world. Certainly they would have been safer at home, unless their home was hit. That size tornado will destroy quite a bit when it is direct. And it sounds like their shelter was hit directly…and that chimney might not have been a smart place to take shelter…but we are always told to take cover near supported walls, under tables, etc. It might have seemed like a safe place.
My dad would have been standing in front until he saw the thing. We have always run up and down the stairs from the basement to the backyard wanting to see the tornado if it comes, but always getting a little too uncomfortable to wait when the sky began looking really ominous.
I don’t do that anymore now that I have children. It is strange how that changes some things for you.
Dana, I’m a scout den leader and heard about this from my pack leader. We were wondering if there is anything other scouts can do to help…if you hear of anything, would you pass the word along. Right now we’re all just praying for the families of these boys.
I’ve been through both hurricanes and a tornado, and I agree, tornadoes can be so sudden and localized that unless there is a direct and obvious storm situation, there is not much you can do to avoid them.
The news also said the boys had done a disaster drill just the day before and so were prepared and knew where to go and what to do. I do wonder though, why a camp located in tornado country did not have actual tornado shelters. I’m not clear, buit from the news reports, it sounded very much like the boys took shelter in mess halls or lodges, which at least offered most of them adequate protection. Still, some sort of underground or pit shelters might have saved these four lives…
There is a fund raiser going on. I’ll see if I can find the info.
An underground shelter would be nice, but I don’t think that is exactly standard for any campground type area. Every location has its own procedures. Acquaintances of our were at Target when the sirens went off and everyone went to the back room. When I worked at Burger King, we went to the freezer. As a customer in another restaurant, we were all taken to the restroom. None of them are “proper” shelters.
Ok, fundraiser information. I saw people in Omaha wearing T-shirts today. I couldn’t remember enough of what I read off the shirt to find anything, but here is a list of funds being collected:
http://www.mac-bsa.org/index.php?u_pg=1393
It looks like the Ben Petrzilka Memorial Fund will be going toward rebuilding the camp and including storm shelters.
From what I understand, the boys took shelter in the north and south shelters. The north shelter was hit directly, with one boy reporting being pulled across the floor and grabbing on to what was left of the shelter to keep from being completely blown away as the chimney collapsed. That is where all the injuries (and fatalities) were. No one in the south shelter was injured.
The whole story is so sad… I was converted six years ago and so I know now and understand that God is in control of all things and has a purpose in all things…
Ruth
I don’t know that there was anything else that the scout leaders (both adult and youth) could have done.
I spent Thursday afternoon thinking about the scouts at this camp while I completed the new Hazardous Weather Training module. The training was a good refresher of what to do in various weather conditions. (Although my boys noted that they didn’t include tsunami or earthquake, our particular weather concerns.) I don’t mention the training because I think it was lacking in this case, but because it is worth the rest of us in the scouting world taking stock of how prepared we would be in a similar situation.
Although I know that it is common to wish to “solve” problems like this, such as speculating about shelters or the wisdom of scout camp in Iowa during tornado season, my concern is for those people related to this tragedy. I feel sadness for those 18 year old scout leaders who will forever feel responsible even though there was absolutely nothing different they could have done in this case. I have lived in Iowa all my life and currently live near Parkersburg, where another tornado took lives. In at least one of those cases, the person was in the basement in an appropriate shelter and was still killed by falling debris. Even an underground shelter there will not always save all lives. I hope we bloggers can remember to pass on messages of strength and faith such as the fact that somehow this too happened as part of God’s plan.
An in-depth radio interview with “Life Scout” Hal Emas can be found at: http://www.tornadowitness.com
Well, I’m glad “God’s plan” seems to now include storm shelters.
We have people die during hurricanes too. We don’t all stop doing our best to prepare and take the precautions we can when it’s appropriate, though.
Thanks for the updates and links.
Nance
We don’t stop taking preparations, either. That isn’t the point. But you know a hurricane is coming days in advance. We know it is coming minutes in advance. And the preparation is that from the time you are in school, it is drilled into you where to go in a tornado. To the basement, under heavy furniture, in the hallway, in a doorway, or if stuck outside, go in the ditch and find something to hold onto. Take cover.
Shelters are a great idea. But given the number of campgrounds in the Midwest, I am not sure that it is a reasonable requirement given the likelihood that a tornado will strike any one location. Shelters can be pricey, and generally only are built for less than ten people. I don’t know what would need to be done to provide shelter for everyone at a campground.
And even the insurance company talks about “Acts of God.”
(That wasn’t to make any point. I just have always found it amusing.)
Insurance company logic isn’t a real favorite here either.
Thanks for the insight into living in tornado country.
Interesting where we all draw the lines at what feels safe and like enough prep and how we justify things to ourselves.
All very interesting.
Nance
I’m just curious what exactly you would advocate doing differently. We are under almost constant thunderstorm watches and warnings this time of year every year. But deaths are actually quite rare. The campground and the nearly 100 families involved never considered that this would be a likely occurrence. It isn’t foreseeable. The minute they knew about a tornado in the area, they took cover. It just happened to be minutes before the tornado came, and the tornado happened to hit where they were at.
Half the boys came from Omaha which was under flash flood warnings at the time. Maybe they were statistically safer in a campground on in the hills, I don’t know. But growing up here, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a healthy respect for the weather. Nor do I know anyone who has canceled a camping trip because of the weather the week before. It changes too fast, and we just don’t know what is going to happen until it does.
It is easy to say that this or that should have happened, or that this or that should have been foreseeable. But I don’t think it was. And I’m a little hesitant to force regulations on every campground in America for an event that occurs so rarely. Statistically, the children were in much more danger on America’s highways en route to the campground.
Ditto that on living in tornado country. I went to college with a girl from Brazil, and she felt the same way about alligators. Yeah, yeah, yeah- so the croc ate the dog- what else is new?
To Dana’s point about “acts of God” in insurance policies — I forgot about that, interesting in this context! I guess they use that phrase to mean “nature” and to distinguish weather events from accidents and intentional events like crimes and acts of war? so hmmm, I wonder if there’s ever been legal establishment of whether insurance companies categorize acts of nature as undesigned or designed, planned or not?
(If their lawyers are smart, they won’t have ever asked that particular question!)
Give me a good ole hurricane any day! Tornados and earthquakes give me the jeebies.
Hurricanes of course, come with tornados scattered throughout. There’s no home or shelter safe enough.
And don’t forget we had what looked like a shark conspiracy down here a couple of years ago. Seriously, like ing together! The news announcers would say gravely to local sheriffs or marine biologists or whoever they were interviewing, “So these attacks must be connected, how is your investigation going?”
Sorry, the truncated sentence was “like they were working together.”
I forgot about that. The shark thing was about 2002, right? Or did it last longer? I only remember because it started while we were still in TX, not far from South Padre Island. It was nutty, but if I remember correctly, there were no more shark attacks than normal. It was just the only thing that seemed to be going on to report in the news.
And interestingly, the most prominent attack I remember which I think is the one that set it off had to do with that boy who was attacked and the father dragged the shark ashore and killed it. But they were doing what “everyone” should know not to do…playing in waste deep water in the evening. Exactly where and when most shark attacks occur.
Tornadoes fascinate me. In 32 years of living in tornado alley (two years I was elsewhere), I’ve only been close to one. It cleared a path from the school which it destroyed to our house which it jumped over, landing a few houses down where it pushed somebody’s garage back the way it had come, crossed the street and began leveling everything again. But there was no way to see it. The sky was pitch black and the rain was falling in sheets. My husband saw the trees twist on themselves, but that is where he got smart and returned to the basement.
I think Tiel Howard’s post summed up my feelings as a Tornado Alley resident living in IL and as someone fascinated by weather. Iowa and Nebraska’s severe weather season usually peaks in May and is winding down by June. Frequent severe weather outbreaks have generally shifted farther north into the Dakotas and Minnesota by June, but as we’ve seen Iowa and Nebraska aren’t completely immune at this time of the year by any means.
Tragically, tornadoes sometimes take the lives of people who do everything they’re supposed to do when they’re in a tornado’s path. The Scouts and their leaders did the best they could with the available structures, but the sad reality is that one of the cabins took a direct hit. Unfortunately, we seem to have a tendency in our society to have to find blame whenever something happens and not accept that things happen that we just really can’t control and that aren’t the result of someone’s negligence or maliciousness.
I’ve been trying to find out more about each of the four boys. After reading about how selfless they all were and how much they gave to others, I’ve really been inspired by each one of them. I’ve been particularly impressed by the strong faith each one of them had. It’s amazing how much we adults could stand to learn from kids.
My thoughts and prayers will continue to be with their families.
Nance Confer said, “wouldn’t they have been safer in their homes?”
Then if the tornado destroyed their home you would of said they would of been safer at camp.