BLENCOE, Iowa — 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 twister flattened their camp in Iowa and killed four boys.
“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 week-long 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.
Killed were Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, and Josh Fennen, 13, Sam Thomsen, 13, and Ben Petrzilka, 14, all of Omaha. 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.
At least a dozen people remained hospitalized Thursday with everything from bruises to spine and head injuries.
At the campsite, a pickup 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 cinder blocks 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.”
After the twister, 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.
Before the storm struck, the Scouts took shelter in the camp’s multipurpose building.
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,” Ethan 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.”
The National Weather Service said the Category 3 storm had an estimated wind speed of 145 mph. The twister cut a path estimated at 14 miles long.
