That was the first thing which came into my mind when I saw this on television. It's not like they weren't warned, considering that the Weather Channel has been talking about the possibility of tornadoes in that area for a week.
And do they even have a tornado cellar on the property?
None of the news reports I have seen here has given any details to the situation as yet.
Theresa 
From what I understand from the news, they only had a very few seconds warning, and the ones who were killed were in a building and a fireplace fell on them. No mention of a storm cellar, they were all scattered all over the large area. They did say they had had a storm training the first day they were out there, a lot of good that did them.
After all the bad weather, flooding, tornadoes, etc. all over the midwest, I can't help but feel that they should have not been at that camp at all.
Maybe I just have a warped attitude about bad weather, but if it is bad, I tend to stay close to home and not put myself and others at further risk.
If this scout camp is like the ones that my DS and DH attended for years -- it is at least 6 days long. And once you arrive -- you do not leave. Most scout camps are in very rural areas with no type of warning sirens near by. Plus the electricity to the camps are usually minimal. Most if not all of these boys could have travelled for several hours to attend the camp. Very few are ever from the area where the camp is located.
A week at Boy Scout Camp is not a vacation (at least by my definition!). But the boys do have fun, they build frienships and trust and knowledge that will make them the leaders of our future. My DS & DH went 4 straight years to Boy Scout camp -- plus many more weekends out camping and they enjoyed their time together and with new friends. Boy Scouts and camp helped my son develop skills and knowledge that he could not learn in the classroom, on the ball field or playing video games. He went on to completion and is an Eagle Scout.
I'm sure that one of the reasons the leaders were able to account for all of the scouts so soon after the tragedy is the 'buddy system' that the Boy Scouts have. No scout is ever allowed to go anywhere (not even to a restroom or to the next station for another badge) without a 'buddy' with him. The scouts know this and understand this as one of the first lessons they learn as Cub Scouts. So they were able to tell very quickly if everyone was accounted for.
I'm not meaning to sound harsh -- but the Boy Scout leaders go through a tremendous amount of training before they can become a leader. Which includes safety preparedness, medical relieve, etc. If I were ever in a tornado -- I would want to be with the boy scouts and their leaders. I am positive the leaders did everything humanly possible to protect the boys -- but God has a plan and we don't always know or understand His plan and that is why our hearts are aching today!
This was a tragic loss -- not only for the young boys families -- but for the Boy Scouts of America also.
I didn't mean to go on so long -- but I believe in the Boy Scouts and my heart is aching for these troops and their families.
Suze
As a Scout leader, I am heading to camp tomorrow. Sure I'm scared, but as the previous poster said...we train alot, the camp is VERY rural, and the boys have to do the buddy system. I KNOW where all my kids are at all times.
It is a very serious tragedy but one that could have happened even if at home. It isn't necessairly the camps fault. They can not predict the weather and goodness knows the weatherman isn't always right. I live in a tornado area...doesn't mean I am going to stay home and worry about one possibly happening. Do Californians stay home because an earthquake may hit? Do you leave home because it may catch fire? Tragedies happen. It isn't anyones fault.
My heart and prayers go out to all the families and staff involved with this tragedy
i'm SO tired of the "bubble" attitude (or is that bubble wrap like in the commercial?) our society is developing.
It MIGHT.....
It possibly....
It could ....
MAYBE....
so I'll just stay put/ stay home/ not go/ not do / not participate / not take a chance.....
OH PUHLEEZE....
like staying home will prevent a tornado or lightning or a flood or.......
it's not like tornadoes call ahead --- are you going to be home -- ok, I'll skip over your house and leave you nice and safe.
It is I M P O S S I B L E to truly protect yourself or any loved one or anyone for that matter from any act of nature.
Life is a DAILY chance.
It could be a bee sting that gets you, or those peanuts or that picket fence (ask to see my scar! that one could have killed me) or the bike (another scar, that one could have killed me too) or the door frame (another scar, what do I have death wish?) or........
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Thanks to the media we have become a nation of hypochondriac chicken littles who are becoming afraid of our own shadows (who's that following me???).
I was watching a news report about the "world's worst mom" -- why? -- because she let her 7-year-old son go home alone on the --gasp!-- subway in NYC.
oh no!!! a predator MIGHT have harmed him, he COULD have been kidnapped , MAYBE he wouldn't be able to find his way home (1 subway-2 stops, 1 bus-6 stops -- even I can count that high!)
well -- none did, no one did, he did it no problems.
you'd think there was a predator lurking behind every lamppost, a kidnapper in every car, and that NYC has an incomprehensible mass transit system (well, I certainly won't give it high marks for comfort, but it is easy to figure out!) to hear all the media pundits, bloggers, busybodies jabber on about it.
all these ills have existed since "then." But with the modern media -- it's like the old sci-fi based horror movies -- oh NO!!!!!!!! 12 foot tall ants are attacking us (interesting how big they look under a magnifying glass!) -- it is so blown so totally out of proportion -- (oh no! -- i've been infected by "valley speak" SO a result of being exposed to the media!)
John Stossel, the ABC news reporter, once did a special called "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death." His answer -- YES! and he blamed it on how the media sensationalizes everything, makes the proverbial Mt. Everest out of a grain of sand.
one sample example from the show:
Q: if you were told that you could have a new and powerful source of energy delivered to your home that wasn't terribly expensive and could be used to make your home more comfortable BUT had the potential to blow up a city block, would you use it????
Of course, the people asked were horrified and said NO WAY!
Then he laid it on them -- he was describing something many of us DO have (and do wish I did have!) -- NATURAL GAS --- that stuff we use to cook with and heat our water with.
How can anyone have predicted even a MOMENT before it hit, exactly where that tornado would hit?
NO ONE HUMAN.
We can chose to let the mights, coulds, maybes, possiblys freeze us into inaction or cowering fearful lives -- sort of like Aristotle's cave where we stay inside looking at the shadows on the wall
or we can come out of the cave, shed our paranoias and our overwrought fears based on nothing but maybes possiblys, mights, coulds and LIVE life knowing that when it is your time, it is your time and you're not going to have anything really to say about it.
----
those mothers and fathers sent their children to that camp in good faith knowing the leaders would do all they could to protect the children -- any one of whom could have just as easily died in a boating accident, or a fall or by a reaction to bee sting or animal bite or even something as tragic as "natural causes" or an undiagnosed heart problem or other medical ill.
None could have foreseen the ensuing events, none could have prevented them other than to retreat into the modern cave lit by the harsh blue light of the electronic hearth to feast on the dumb shadow play on the screen. How poorer the children condemned to the prison of their homes -- safe from all the "ills" that MIGHT, COULD, MAYBE, POSSIBLY beset them
(tho' have you looked at video games, the interent, and tv lately -- frankly, I think children would be safer out in the woods in bad weather!)
My prayers are with those families.
I couldn't have said it better myself Doug!
My prayers are with the boys' families
I live 90 miles North of where this tornado touched down. We have tornado watches frequently this time of the year. If we stayed home every time a watch was issued no one would go anywhere...That terrible night we had multiple tornadoes in our state. My family spent part of the evening in the basement hoping to be spared. My Dh is still out working and restoring power to homes that lost it during the storms. He also went to Parkersburg, IA when they lost half of the town to a tornado a couple of weeks ago. The terrible destruction a tornado can do will stay with him forever! These families need positive thoughts. Their sons were there for a week long camp. The survivors knew what do do after the tornado hit and saved lives because they were prepared to.
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