Gateway

Issue date: 6/17/08 Section: Special Section

A Boy Scout troop leader looks through what was left of a shelter Thursday, after four scouts were killed by a tornado that blew through the camp near Little Sioux, Iowa. The unidentified troop leader had been at the camp when the tornado struck on Wednesday. (courtesy - Mike Ransdell) [Click to enlarge]

BLENCOE, Iowa (MCT) - The collar of Zach Jessen's scout uniform was scuffed with dirt. His arm was welted and bruised and his back, he said, looked like someone had gone over it with a baseball bat.

Despite all that, Zach was up, active and cool as could be at 7 Thursday morning - scarcely 12 hours after he rode out a tornado at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Western Iowa.

The tornado killed two 13-year-old scouts and two 14-year-old scouts, said Lloyd Roitstein, an executive with the Mid America Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Dozens more were injured.

At a news conference Thursday morning, the four who died were identified as Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, and Josh Fennen, 13, Sam Thomsen, 13, and Ben Petrzilka, 14, all of Omaha.

Of the injured, four were in a Sioux City, Iowa, hospital in serious but stable condition. Twenty were taken to a hospital in Onawa, Iowa, where 13 were treated and released and six were admitted with minor injuries. One was transferred to Sioux City.

Eleven of the injured were taken to a hospital in Missouri Valley, Iowa. Three of those were transferred to Creighton Hospital in Omaha. Their injuries included a skull fracture, a pelvic fracture and a spinal injury.

Ninety-three scouts were at the camp Wednesday night when the tornado stormed through, leveling the shelter where they huddled as the storm approached. The scouts, ages 13 to 18, and 25 staff members were attending a weeklong leadership training camp.

The scouts were outdoors around 6:30, when the storm blew in, said Zach, a 14-year-old youth scout leader from Fremont, Neb. They saw the funnel cloud form and then ran to a shelter about a quarter mile away to take cover.

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