Several persons during a risk management training session shared some personal stories.
Story #1: Regarding the issue of driver fatigue, one person confirmed that a scout leader returning from summer camp fell asleep and hit his car in traffic. As it turns out, this may have saved the scout leader’s car from hitting a jersey barrier, avoiding a more serious outcome.
Story #2: A second person indicated that his crew was in attendance at Philmont during the flood of June, 2015, and that his crew had made a deliberate decision when camping in one of the canyons to pick the highest elevation campsite that was available. He said this ended up being a prudent decision given the soon-to-occur circumstances later that evening.
Story #3: Another person told the story of an adult Philmont crew member who required medical attention while on the trail due to the stresses of the environment, particularly the heat. Upon reflection, the adult admitted that one contributing factor to the onset of the emergency was the presence of his son, whom he did not want to disappoint by admitting that he could not maintain the same level of activity as the rest of the crew.
Story #4: One person told the story of a colleague who had been backpacking along the C&O Canal (Maryland), and having the choice of two campsites for the night, fortuitously chose the one which did not have a large tree topple onto the campsite that same night.
Story #5: Another person said that the summer camp that her troop had attended this past summer informed each troop that, in the event of a storm, each troop should shelter in place, as there would be no direction from the camp. In fact, a significant storm did occur, causing the troop to deal with the potential hazard by placing the Scouts in the hard shelter in the campsite. This story confirms that the health and safety of those at summer camp is, in fact, the ultimate responsibility of the attending adult leaders, and who must accordingly be well versed in hazardous weather and lightning safety.
This contrasts with the camp that the author’s troop attended this most recent summer which had loudspeakers located throughout the camp which, in the event of a storm, sounded a siren alarm, and a verbal instruction to seek hard shelter. This the author’s troop had to do between the hours of 2 am and 3:30 am one night. The camp has had this emergency procedure in place for years.
Depending on the locale, and how much anyone is paying attention to weather radar, summer camp storm procedures will probably vary from one end of the spectrum to the other.