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French Jamboree Evacuated Due To Severe Storm


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I just came across this: 15,000 scouts evacuated in France as storm hits camp.
 

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Some 15,000 teenaged scouts from all over Europe had be evacuated from a camp in France in the early hours of Saturday after a violent storm hit the area, with more than a dozen injured.

Scouts and Guides France, which organised the jamboree in the eastern city of Strasbourg, said 15 of the children had suffered "sprains, fractures or dislocations," but that there were no serious injuries.

The fire and rescue service in France's Bas-Rhin region had earlier said 35 people had been "very lightly injured" during the storm, which forced organisers to evacuate the thousands of children in the middle of the night.

Organisers said the 15,000 youngsters, mostly aged between 14 and 17 and hailing from across Europe, were taken to a nearby theatre for shelter.

"There was no panic as we had been warned about the storm's arrival half an hour before," organisers said, adding that the children were able to return to their tents on Saturday morning.

Authorities had issued an alert around 2:00 am warning of a severe storm and strong winds in the city on the German border.


I wonder how the Bechtel Reservation would do with 30 minutes warning?

 

Here is a french twitter feed with a bunch of photos of the jamboree. Including a couple of the arena where they spent the night. The article I quoted said it was a theatre, but others say it was an indoor sports arena.

 

All I can say is wow! Evacuating 15,000 people with 30 minutes warning!

 

Talk about Be Prepared!

 

Here is the BBC story on it.

Edited by Rick_in_CA
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Looking at photos of all the attractive female scouts over there  Looking at the photos of the damaged tents and sad scouts, I think as a great way to increase recruitment and signup of US boys  as an example of  World Brotherhood, the BSA should offer a "blitzsturm" discount for those scouts to attend the Summit Jambo.

 

My $0.02, ;)

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Here is the English version of the jamboree website.
 
Plus the English twitter feed for the Jamboree.
 
Another news story with a few more details. Such as:

Authorities had issued an alert around 02:00 warning of a severe storm and strong winds in the French city on the border with Germany.

Most of the injuries were caused by falling tent posts, one of the organisers said, but added that the main marquees had not collapsed.

The children were moved to a nearby auditorium for the night and were provided with bedding, water and a light snack and a hot breakfast in the morning.

"From 04:30 in the morning, the organisers began operations to refurbish the camp to allow the youths to return to their tents in the morning," the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin region said in a statement.

The camp's normal activities were due to resume soon with the jamboree winding up on Thursday.

Based on the twitter photos, I think the auditorium is close to the Jamboree grounds as the Jamboree was using it for events. Still, darn impressive planning and execution.

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Here is the English version of the jamboree website.

 

Plus the English twitter feed for the Jamboree.

 

Another news story with a few more details. Such as:

Based on the twitter photos, I think the auditorium is close to the Jamboree grounds as the Jamboree was using it for events. Still, darn impressive planning and execution.

 

I've got 5 current and former scouts going to the world jamboree in Japan later this month. They've already had to have evacuation drills as the site is on the coast and if there is a tsunami alert they have to be ready to go in a matter of minutes. Quite scary!

 

Any major jamboree will have an evacuation plan, this one in France though is the first time I've heard of it being put into practice.

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