Church camps reassure Disciples on foul-weather plans following Iowa Boy Scout tragedy

From DisciplesWorld:

By Ryan Singleton, DisciplesWorld contributing writer

BURWELL, Neb. (7/11/08) — One day after the tragic deaths of four Boy Scouts in Iowa, Kamp Kaleo issued a letter to Nebraska Disciples and others asking for “help in reassuring parents, campers, and the church at large that we are prepared for such emergencies and that campers will be as safe as possible."

On June 11, four Scouts were killed and many others injured when a tornado hit the Little Sioux Scout Camp in western Iowa. The tragedy happened around the beginning of the season for many Disciples camps and conference centers.

Michael Stein, chair of the Nebraska region’s youth and outdoor ministries, wrote the letter explaining the difference between the Boy Scouts’ camping expedition and the facilities at Kamp Kaleo, which serves both the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ. “The Iowa Boy Scout Camp was intended to be a more remote and wilderness-like facility. For this reason, campers there unfortunately did not have access to the extensive warning system and shelter options afforded campers at Kaleo,” Stein noted.

Those include a storm monitoring process, emergency sirens from the nearby town of Burwell, and underground shelters.

The Christian Conference Center of the Upper Midwest Region also took steps to let concerned Disciples know how it protects campers during inclement weather. Associate Regional Minister Bill Spangler-Dunning e-mailed a letter last month detailing the systems and facilities in place.
Those include three newly remodeled, underground shelters, two of which function like “efficiency apartments,” according to Spangler-Dunning. The third is a large room that doubles as a meeting hall. The two smaller shelters can house 96 people, while the larger room can hold 120 individuals or 60 people with mattresses.

The camp also has interns and staff who monitor weather reports and are quick to move campers to safer shelters if an ominous storm approaches.

“Anytime a storm is in the area one of our interns will stay up and collect information relevant to its impact on the camp and if needed we will awake all our campers and move them to the tornado shelter located in the basement of the main lodge,” Spangler-Dunning said.