Tornadoes ravage US, Scouts among six dead
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tornadoes ravage US, Scouts among six dead*
by Staff Writers
Blencoe, Iowa (AFP) June 12, 2008
President George W. Bush paid tribute Thursday to the victims of harsh
weather that has swept the United States, including six killed by
tornadoes, four of them young Scouts on a camping trip.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the terrible tornadoes
and flooding, especially those who lost loved ones," Bush said.
"We've been inspired by the stories of heroism, neighbors helping
neighbors and communities coming together... They'll have the prayers of
the American people, and we'll help them recover."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff toured this small Iowa town
Thursday to survey the damage left by the bad weather and see the site
where four teenage Scouts died Wednesday when a tornado hit their camp.
"It's a really terrible tragedy," he said. "I think everybody will be
particularly touched by the thought of the finest young people in this
region being caught up in a tornado which struck them like a bowling ball."
The Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Iowa's remote western hills was
"virtually destroyed" when the twister touched down late Wednesday, the
president of the Boy Scouts Mid-American Council, Lloyd Roitstein, said.
About 100 staff and boys aged 13 to 17 were in the middle of a week-long
leadership training course when the tornado hit, ripping tents off the
ground and snapping trees at the 1,800-acre (730-hectare) compound, he said.
State emergency officials named the four victims as Aaron Eilerts, 14,
of Iowa, Josh Fennen, 13, Sam Thomsen, 13, and Ben Petrzilka, 14, all
three from Nebraska. Another 40 people at the camp were reportedly injured.
It sounded "like freight trains coming at us," one of the scout leaders,
14-year-old Zach Jessen said, after surviving with little more than bruises.
Jessen grabbed his best friend at the camp and lay on top of him to
shield him from the flying debris. "When it hit, it felt like I was
getting shot at -- there was rocks, dirt, grass, trees, everything," he
said.
The scouts had a weather radio with them and had carried out an
emergency tornado drill the day before so "they knew what to do,"
Roitstein said.
As the weather worsened they retreated into the camp's bunkhouse and
when it was hit they set up their own mini-triage unit to help the
injured, Iowa Governor Chet Culver said here.
Their actions "literally saved lives" as they waited for emergency
services to cut their way through fallen trees to reach the camp, about
a mile from the nearest road, he said.
Officials said a man and a woman also died in separate incidents after
several twisters swept through northeast Kansas on Wednesday causing
"significant damage" to homes, business and buildings.
Iowa was already struggling after the east of the state was hit by
flooding earlier this week leaving some 20,000 people in Mason County
without clean water after a treatment plant flooded.
Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin have all
been hit by extreme weather, with flooding causing widespread damage.
A bridge on the flood-swollen Mississippi was closed indefinitely after
a three barges slammed into it, while bridges have been closed in
several other states to combat rising river levels which could hit new
records.
Residents in the town of Cedar Falls, Iowa, were told to evacuate on
Tuesday, as part of a railroad bridge was swept away at Waterloo.
"This is been a remarkable onslaught of weather, everything from
flooding, unbelievable rain and of course tornados all descending at
once," Chertoff said in Blencoe.
He vowed the US administration stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" with
communities as they prepared to rebuild.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has asked the government to declare farm
disasters in 44 counties because of crop damage and livestock losses,
with estimates of the damage reaching 126 million dollars.
Across the country in California, meanwhile, Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in a coastal county south
of San Francisco as wildfires threatened thousands of homes in the
state's rain-starved north.
The Santa Cruz fire has already ravaged 280 hectares (700 acres) and an
unspecified number of buildings, he said. In Butte County, two brush and
forest fires have scorched some 10,000 hectares and destroyed 21 homes.