moxieman Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Camp Bell, part of Hidden Valley Scout Reservation, Daniel Webster Council, NH experienced a thunderstorm yesterday (6/24) evening. 23 scouts were struck by lightning and treated at area hospitals. News link: http://www.wmtw.com/weather/several-reported-hit-by-lightning-at-boy-scout-camp/-/8793538/20700208/-/ge4tcu/-/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 How sad. An aweful way to learn how important it is to spread out if you don't have a grounded structure to shelter in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 This was NYLT at Bell. None of the injures were life-threatening; most were minor. Six of the 23 suffered "somewhat serious" burns, Fire Chief David Parenti said. Seven of the Scouts had very minor burns, he said. "All 23 of them had burns of some sort," Parenti said. "But even the six (burn victims), we worry about the chest, but they weren't burned too bad, really." http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130625/NEWS11/130629507 The Incident Reports from NYLT should have more details, hopefully with the Fire Chief's report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Not a great way to start off the season at summer camp.. Glad no one was seriously hurt, so hopefully all we will get out of it is some scouts with war stories to tell for years to come.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagledad Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Was always my number 1 fear as a SM. Oklahoma is well known for its energetic storms, but so were all the areas we seemed to do our high adventures. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packsaddle Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 I'm glad to find out that Moosetracker was not among them. Also glad that there were no fatalities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blw2 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 How sad. An aweful way to learn how important it is to spread out if you don't have a grounded structure to shelter in.I read....er, skimmed.... a story on this linked to from Drudge. maybe the same link referred to here, not sure..... but it said that the scouts were all in a shelter. Just didn't say what sort of shelter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Thanks for worrying about me, but no I have left the teen years (sounds like even the counselors were youth which is natural for an NYLT, very few adults... BLW2 - " the scouts were taking shelter underneath a canopy when lightening either hit the canopy".. 8:30 might have been a little early for bed.. But 23 boys sounds too large for a patrol grouping.. Still, this course takes in way more boys then they should, like they run the course for 100 boys.. They really should break it into 2 or 3 groups but I don't think the camp can give them 2 or 3 weeks out of the summer... I don't know if they run lots & lots of patrols.. or do big big patrols.. So it could have be a patrol group doing something. There are two camps on the property, one is large and lots of buildings, but Bell is the small one, with I think only 3 buildings the administration building, a boat house and strangely a indoor rock wall.. Why the largest building is an indoor rock wall when everything else is outdoors I don't know.. (Oh yeah and about 6 small staff cabins.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Ding Dong Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Umm, when I first read the articles I am certain they mentioned something about a "piece of metal" running from the shelter to an undisclosed location that allegedly carried the energy to the shelter. The two links make no mention of the metal as of a few minutes ago. Does anyone else recall that reporting ? I seem to have this problem in the digital age. I read something and then go back to it for reference and all of a sudden it is not the same. Maybe I am showing my age. Moosetracker, any idea what this piece of metal was ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Tarp set up among tall eastern white pines was the shelter with one of those trees struck. video shows tarp and lightning strike http://www.necn.com/06/25/13/NH-Boy-Scouts-back-at-camp-after-lightni/landing_weather.html?blockID=844849&feedID=11106 Prepared? They were very lucky. My $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blw2 Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 After seeing that video, I can say that it wasn't much of a shelter...... except against rain. Anyway, I can certainly see how everyone would have grouped up under the tarp...... ....but I suppose the better approach would have been to disperse, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Dispersed low away from tall trees might have been better, as in go to low area tents. But the day's forecast was known and Camp Bell does have a severe weather protocol to monitor weather, report warnings, and evacuate to the main lodge ahead of storms. ??? Puzzling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Main Lodge??? Hidden valley has a main lodge, cafeteria etc.. Camp Bell.. Not unless they built it in the last year.. The Rock climbing wall can host a decent size group, I forgot they do have a barn, they have horse back riding, other small buildings are really only comfortable for 3 to 6 people. Thanks for the video RS, I had a newspaper article I was going to post this morning, but the site was down this morning for me. Don't recognize anyone in the video... But, the tree looks very familure... (just kidding).. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Bell has its own main lodge, not as large as Hidden Valley. It appears at 1:20 into the above video. Top floor - camp director, nurses office, store, staff kitchette, gathering room/classroom (where we evacuate to for bad weather), old shower room. The latter two, I believe, were an addition to original small camp director building . There are now showers up the hill. Lodge basement is commissary (food storage, distribution) and storage. Bell's main lodge has existed in this configuration for at least 4-5 years. It gets pretty cramped during t-storms. My $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SR540Beaver Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Thanks for worrying about me, but no I have left the teen years (sounds like even the counselors were youth which is natural for an NYLT, very few adults... BLW2 - " the scouts were taking shelter underneath a canopy when lightening either hit the canopy".. 8:30 might have been a little early for bed.. But 23 boys sounds too large for a patrol grouping.. Still, this course takes in way more boys then they should, like they run the course for 100 boys.. They really should break it into 2 or 3 groups but I don't think the camp can give them 2 or 3 weeks out of the summer... I don't know if they run lots & lots of patrols.. or do big big patrols.. So it could have be a patrol group doing something. There are two camps on the property, one is large and lots of buildings, but Bell is the small one, with I think only 3 buildings the administration building, a boat house and strangely a indoor rock wall.. Why the largest building is an indoor rock wall when everything else is outdoors I don't know.. (Oh yeah and about 6 small staff cabins.) Just like Wood Badge, an NYLT Course is limited to 48 participants. If they had over 100 youth there, they were running multiple courses. The Scouts killed by a tornado in 2008 at Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Iowa were at NYLT and also mentioned well over 100 boys in attendance. Either the journalists are getting it wrong or the council is running two courses at the same time. I can guarantee you about 99.9% that the region and national do not allow courses over the maximum. In our council we run two course a year on seperate dates. We don't have the facilities to run two programs at once on the same property. I suppose it could be done by having both course share meal time in the dining hall as long as you have facilities enough for troop and patrol meetings and camp sites in different locations. But they would have to adhere to a pretty strict schedule to share meals. Edited to add. Following the Iowa tornado, our council built storm shelters at all of our resident camp facilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now