Fund to build shelters at camps

Camp Cedars was lucky.

When a storm approached last year, the Boy Scout camp’s staff quickly moved 325 of the 600 people there into two basements. The rest took refuge in the dining hall’s kitchen, away from windows and shielded from debris but still above ground in a wood-frame building.

The storm passed the Fremont-area camp. It could have been a lot worse, said the camp’s director, Don Williamson.

“If we had taken a direct hit on the dining hall from a tornado, everything from the slab up would have been gone,” he said.

About 40 miles northeast of the camp, the same storm system spawned a tornado that wrought havoc at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa. The twister killed four Boy Scouts and injured dozens of others who sought shelter in camp buildings, none of which had basements.

Now the Mid-America Council, which operates both camps and three others, is preparing to launch a major fundraising campaign to build emergency shelters at all of its camps. The project will cost $6.6 million.

“This is by far is the largest campaign that we’ve undertaken,” said Lloyd Roitstein, council Scout executive.

So far, the council has raised $1.8 million in unsolicited donations for the shelters.

The emergency structures will be built with reinforced concrete to meet standards set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They could withstand wind up to 250 mph and impacts from objects traveling up to 120 mph.

Each of the structures is designed to serve another purpose.

At the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, storm shelters are being built into buildings as part of the reconstruction effort. A new welcome center completed in April can house 200 people in a storm. Three new buildings and two new shower houses will bring the camp’s storm shelter capacity up to about 1,000.

Before the storm, the camp had no shelter that met FEMA guidelines.

Camp Cedars, the largest of the council’s camps, will have six buildings that could provide shelter for about 1,200 people in an emergency, and Camp Eagle, a nearby camp for younger Cub Scouts, will be able to house about 400 people.

Thomas Ashford Scout Ranch, near Homer, Neb., will have space for about 250 people in an emergency, and Camp Wakonda in Bellevue will have space for about 150.

The council is also looking to install new warning sirens, communication equipment and emergency power generators.

Scott Seibert, the director of support services for the council, said the projects will be started as the council collects enough money to fund them. Donors may direct donations to a specific camp, and so far most of the donations have gone to Little Sioux.

“We’ve got lots of work ahead of us for the other camps,” Seibert said.

The council is still recruiting a person to coordinate the campaign, but Seibert said donations can be made at the council’s Web site at www.mac-bsa.org or the Durham Scout Center at 12401 West Maple Road, Omaha, NE, 68164.

Contact the writer:

444-1229, elliot.njus@owh.com