Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Three Weeks of Photos Part III

Friends of ours who were also camping and had a son in the boys camp came and told us Saturday morning that they were evacuating the boys. No one knew what to believe, so the Engineer and I went to the camp to investigate. Our friends' daughter looked after our girls and we took the twenty minute drive, silently wondering how bad it could be.

Let's just say, that Camp Northern Lights had become Camp Northern Mudhole. It was becoming a deperate situation. However, generally speaking, all the boys were dry. They just couldn't go anywhere or do anything, so by Sunday morning after our campground church service, we were given the official word that they had started evacuating Saturday night. If we had boys in "such and such groups, we could go get our boys.

Never in the forty odd years of running this program has the decision had to be made to evacuate, and certainly not because of mud. They have evacuation procedures in place for fire, earthquake, tornado, etc. Mud however, was a totally different ball game. Typically, the idea is to get out and get out fast. No one could go fast in this situation. They started moving groups of boys out on Saturday after lunch. It took over twenty four hours to get them all out. The boys looked at it as an adventure, but the counselors were heartbroken. By Sunday afternoon, all 1300 men and boys were accounted for and safely enconsed in a nearby arena in a town of 1200 citizens. They had brought bulldozers in (as far as they could) with trailers attatched to pull all the boys gear out. We were to get our boys from the arena, but not without proper ID. By this point our friends had headed home and we were to look after their son. Thankfully, we had their son's ID and a letter stating that he was to go home with us.

The boys were thrilled to see us as they were getting a little bored and were happy to escape an extremely crowded arena. On the whole, they were happy and healthy. They were not extremely disappointed by the situation, but Bub was disappointed that he missed his turn to rapel by inches. (He was hooked up and ready to go, and just as he was about to go over the edge, it started thundering and lightning.) They were glad to be going "home" and spending a few more -- hopefully drier days camping.

1 comment:

  1. That is one incredible experience. I had no idea that the mud was the problem; I thought the evacuation was because of floods. Bub will never forget that and of course neither will you!

    Did you have any fun before you had to leave? It sure is beautiful up there.

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