February 11, 2009 2:48 PM
- Text
A Tornado's Tragic Toll
(CBS/ 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 chimney. And others broke into an equipment shed, seized chainsaws and other tools, and started clearing fallen trees from a road.
Dozens of the Scouts, ages 13 to 18, were hailed for their bravery and resourcefulness Thursday, the morning after a tornado with windspeeds upwards of 135 miles an hour, reports CBS News correspondent Dave Price, killed four boys and left the Iowa camp unrecognizable.
"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.
Among the dead were: Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, who was known as an outgoing friendly kid who loved Elvis Presley, reports Price; Josh Fennen, 13, of Omaha, who was described as creative, confident and a natural leader; Sam Thomsen, 13, of Omaha who was known to love scouting, sports and his church; and Ben Petrzilka, 14, of Omaha, who is said to have enjoyed the outdoors and liked to hunt and fish with his father.
Roitstein said all four had taken shelter in a building that was leveled, and all of them were found near its collapsed stone chimney. The governor said the cause of death had not been determined.
Scout supervisor Thomas White recalled riding out the storm in a ditch and then running to help.
"It was about five minutes after I was up there that I saw the scouts that had died," White told Davis. "But I stayed calm when I was up there cause one thing got to do is stay calm yourself so other people stay calm. Then it goes a lot smoother and people get taken care of and more peolpe survive."
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 one-room multipurpose building where the scouts died was a pile of cinderblocks and chimney stones.
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."
A group of Scouts who had set out on a hike had returned to the camp before the storm hit, Smith said.
On the other side of the state, 3,900 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 and a TV in addition to a fireplace. Jessen said he and others managed to get Scouts out of their tents and indoors just before the tornado hit. According to Roitstein, the Scouts took shelter in three buildings.
Jessen said shortly afterward, the door on the multipurpose building flew open and he heard someone yelling to get under the tables.
"All of a sudden, the tornado came and took the building," Jessen said. "It sounded like a giant freight train going right over the top of you."
Jessen said shortly afterward, the door on the multipurpose building flew open and he heard someone yelling to get under the tables.
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."
He added: "All of a sudden people started taking action. Like it just clicked. One of the staff members took off his shirt and put it right on the guy who was bleeding and told me to get on top of him so he would stop moving so he could apply pressure and gauze. We started digging people out of the rubble."
The 1,800-acre Little Sioux Scout Ranch is in the Loess Hills in westernmost Iowa, close to the Nebraska line, about 40 miles north of Omaha. The hills rise 200 feet above the plains in what is otherwise an exceedingly flat state. While tornadoes are often associated with flat, open land, Iowa is in Tornado Alley, and forecasters said twisters are not unusual in the Loess Hills.
The camp includes hiking trails through narrow valleys and over steep hills, a 15-acre lake and a rifle range.
Lisa Petry, the mother of 13-year-old Boy Scout Jose Olivo, said she had a bad feeling Wednesday morning when she heard reports of possible severe weather. "I thought, `Should I call the scout camp and ask if there's severe weather, where will they go?"' she said.
The governor would not address questions about whether the Scouts should have remained at the campground after severe weather alerts were issued.
"There's always lessons learned from any natural disaster, from any tragedy," Culver said. "We need to focus on the victims, the families affected."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff toured the camp and said it appeared that the Boy Scouts "didn't have a chance" and that the tornado came through the camp "like a bowling ball."
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 chimney. And others broke into an equipment shed, seized chainsaws and other tools, and started clearing fallen trees from a road.
Dozens of the Scouts, ages 13 to 18, were hailed for their bravery and resourcefulness Thursday, the morning after a tornado with windspeeds upwards of 135 miles an hour, reports CBS News correspondent Dave Price, killed four boys and left the Iowa camp unrecognizable.
"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.
Among the dead were: Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, who was known as an outgoing friendly kid who loved Elvis Presley, reports Price; Josh Fennen, 13, of Omaha, who was described as creative, confident and a natural leader; Sam Thomsen, 13, of Omaha who was known to love scouting, sports and his church; and Ben Petrzilka, 14, of Omaha, who is said to have enjoyed the outdoors and liked to hunt and fish with his father.
Roitstein said all four had taken shelter in a building that was leveled, and all of them were found near its collapsed stone chimney. The governor said the cause of death had not been determined.
Scout supervisor Thomas White recalled riding out the storm in a ditch and then running to help.
"It was about five minutes after I was up there that I saw the scouts that had died," White told Davis. "But I stayed calm when I was up there cause one thing got to do is stay calm yourself so other people stay calm. Then it goes a lot smoother and people get taken care of and more peolpe survive."
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 one-room multipurpose building where the scouts died was a pile of cinderblocks and chimney stones.
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."
A group of Scouts who had set out on a hike had returned to the camp before the storm hit, Smith said.
On the other side of the state, 3,900 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 and a TV in addition to a fireplace. Jessen said he and others managed to get Scouts out of their tents and indoors just before the tornado hit. According to Roitstein, the Scouts took shelter in three buildings.
Jessen said shortly afterward, the door on the multipurpose building flew open and he heard someone yelling to get under the tables.
"All of a sudden, the tornado came and took the building," Jessen said. "It sounded like a giant freight train going right over the top of you."
Jessen said shortly afterward, the door on the multipurpose building flew open and he heard someone yelling to get under the tables.
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."
He added: "All of a sudden people started taking action. Like it just clicked. One of the staff members took off his shirt and put it right on the guy who was bleeding and told me to get on top of him so he would stop moving so he could apply pressure and gauze. We started digging people out of the rubble."
The 1,800-acre Little Sioux Scout Ranch is in the Loess Hills in westernmost Iowa, close to the Nebraska line, about 40 miles north of Omaha. The hills rise 200 feet above the plains in what is otherwise an exceedingly flat state. While tornadoes are often associated with flat, open land, Iowa is in Tornado Alley, and forecasters said twisters are not unusual in the Loess Hills.
The camp includes hiking trails through narrow valleys and over steep hills, a 15-acre lake and a rifle range.
Lisa Petry, the mother of 13-year-old Boy Scout Jose Olivo, said she had a bad feeling Wednesday morning when she heard reports of possible severe weather. "I thought, `Should I call the scout camp and ask if there's severe weather, where will they go?"' she said.
The governor would not address questions about whether the Scouts should have remained at the campground after severe weather alerts were issued.
"There's always lessons learned from any natural disaster, from any tragedy," Culver said. "We need to focus on the victims, the families affected."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff toured the camp and said it appeared that the Boy Scouts "didn't have a chance" and that the tornado came through the camp "like a bowling ball."
Latest Now in National
- Hackers hit CIA, U.N. Web sites
- Stars rehearse for Grammys 2012
- Uzbek man pleads guilty in plot to kill Obama
- Coach found dead of apparent suicide in Pa. jail
- Powell father kept dozens of pics of son's wife
- Banks could still face prosecution despite deal
- Purple squirrel in Pa. remains a mystery
- HealthPop: Online dating and jaw engraving
- Obama signs Giffords' final bill into law
- The Showbuzz: The Amazing Spider-Man
- CNET's Next Big Thing in Tech 2012
- Panetta to Marines: "Look into" SS flag photo
- Person shoots self at N.H. grade school
- A reporter's life: On the trail of Mitt Romney
- President Obama on contraception coverage
- Music industry players on Grammys, tech issues
- Grammy roundtable: Changing music biz
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook
on CBS News
- Lawmaker's stock trades draw ethics investigation
- Hackers hit CIA, U.N. Web sites
- Movie Scores: How the critics rated the new movies
- Setback in Greek deal sends investors into bonds
on Facebook
- Adele sings a cappella for Anderson Cooper
- Josh Powell had "incestuous" images on his home computer, authorities say
- Adele sings a cappella for Anderson Cooper
on CBS News
