Boy Scout camp in Iowa hit by tornado; 4 dead

A tornado tore through Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa on Wednesday evening, killing four people and injuring at least 40 Scouts and leaders taking part in a leadership training program.

The storm hit just after dinner, as the teenage Boy Scouts were relaxing and nervously watching the sky. Officials said 93 boys, ages 13 to 18, and 25 staff members were there.

It had rained off and on throughout the day, feeding the already swelling rivers that forecasters say could bring flooding across Iowa in the next few days.

As dark clouds and lightning strikes filled the sky, the campers started moving toward a shelter on the northern side of the camp. There were two groups heading for shelter, frantic parents told reporters Wednesday night. But only one group made it.

David Hunt, chairman of the Goldenrod District of the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America, told the Associated Press that the Scouts were attending a weeklong leadership training program.

“This is really their first foray into leadership training,” Hunt said.

“Nothing like this has ever happened . . . in our council’s 90-year history,” Hunt said. “Everyone’s trying to keep it together. They’re trying to keep it together. We’re all here for the same thing. We’re trying to find out what’s going on.”

Trevor Ruffcom, 14, a Scout who came to try to help, told the Omaha World-Herald that the camp had been was flattened. Trees were splintered. Showers made of cinderblock had crumbled.

“Sights I’ve seen, I’m never going to forget,” he told the newspaper.

“I’ve heard all the buildings are gone,” said Hunt, who is also a local Scout leader.

Another Scouting official said the camp had suffered “major destruction.”

Parents raced to the rural town of Little Sioux in Harrison County for news about their children, ignoring or disregarding the tornado sirens that continued to scream in the air.

“We got in the car and got up here. It’s scary,” one mother told local TV reporters. “We ran out of gas before we got here, and because of the tornadoes that were still touching down, the gas station in Omaha wouldn’t open up their pumps for us. Another parent happened to drive up. So we came up here with them.”

Al Jessen of Fremont, Neb., told the Omaha newspaper that his son Zach, 19, called just minutes after the storm hit. Zach, a staff leader at the camp, told his parents that he’d been bruised but “a lot of boys from the troop were badly hurt.”

According to reporters on the scene, dozens of parents gathered at a community center near the camp to wait for word on the fate of their children. Some were crying, others were screaming at emergency staff for more information.

At least four of the injured were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, about 50 miles away, according to Mike Krysl, a hospital spokesman.

Two teenagers were transported by medical helicopter about 8 p.m. A third was flown to the hospital an hour later. The fourth was taken by ambulance.

Three of the four are teenagers, Krysl said, and all four are in serious condition. He would not give specific information about the nature of the hospitalized boys’ injuries, telling CNN only that they were “traumatic injuries.”

Little Sioux Scout Ranch covers about 1,800 hilly, heavily wooded acres about an hour north of Omaha near the town of Blencoe, in an area of the state known as the Loess Hills.

The Scouts from Iowa and Nebraska arrived Sunday and were expected to leave Saturday morning, according to Lloyd Roitstein, president of the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Although there are four cabin shelters on the property, Roitstein told CNN that the Scouts had been sleeping in tents during their stay.

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p.j.huffstutter@latimes