Aaron Tobin
Enthusiast
Here's a question for anyone who is/was in boy Scouts or parents of children in boy scouts. What do you think about the storm shelters at Boy Scout camp? Is it concrete? Underground? Is it relatively new? Could it withstand a tornado? Do you feel like it's built well enough to keep your child safe during severe weather? I'm only asking because for the last year I've been working on a project that would ideally result in FEMA standards being required for storm shelters at Boy Scout camps nationwide. My research has yielded over a dozen deaths and 87 injuries at Boy Scout camps since 2005 as a result of severe weather. The number might be higher if not all incidents made it to the news or national weather service. I made Eagle Scout as a teenager and if you combine that with being a storm chaser, of course I pay attention to how the weather affects scouting activities. The way it's currently going is unacceptable to me and I'm trying to change that. What are your thoughts on what you've seen for storm shelters and severe weather plans at Boy Scout camps? I've attached several images of examples of buildings I've found at Boy Scout camps recently. Wooden buildings with windows seem to be common place at these camps (including buildings that they define as "storm shelters"). These wooden & window filled buildings seem less than ideal for something to be used as a shelter in a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning that could cause winds to exceed 100 mph.
