Flooding Forces Evacuation Of 100 Boy Scouts
WALSENBURG, Colo. (AP/CBS4) - About 100 Boy Scouts are back at their southern Colorado camp after being evacuated because of flooding.
The scouts left the Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch on school buses and sheriff's vehicles before dawn Tuesday after rain caused a creek on the property near Walsenburg to rise.
"The water was actually so high it was several, several feet within the building, and they had to get on top of a picnic table and on top of the roof," Craig Lessar with the Huerfano County Sheriff's Office said. "And when they got on top of the roof the picnic table had finally floated away."
They went to a Red Cross shelter in Walsenburg and authorities cleared them to return around midday. Scout executive Michael Stewart says the scouts, most of them from southwestern Kansas, were camping in tents above Bear Creek and weren't in immediate danger.
Scouts there were also forced to evacuate last year by a wildfire, which has made the land more prone to flooding.
The scouts have been getting a real-life lesson in conservation by planting trees and grass to prevent erosion and flooding.
"I feel like scouting teaches not only to be prepared, but to adapt and overcome, and that's what we did today," a Boy Scout leader said.
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)