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FSB cadet rescues family from tornando wreckage
Published Thursday July 10, 2008
Camp ranger, family thank Boy Scout family
Patrick Mason is a member of the Fighting Saints Battalion, class of 2012.
Nathan Dean said today that not only did two Boy Scouts help free him and his family from the rubble of their house after it was destroyed in a tornado but that they also saved the life of their 2-year-old son, Avin, who he said was suffocating.
Dean, the ranger at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch near Little Sioux, Iowa, today thanked Boy Scouts Patrick Mason, 19, and A.J. Lousen, 20, for their quick work to free him, his wife, Tammy Dean, and their three children.
"They did what they were trained to do," Nathan Dean said. "They did what their instincts told them."
The Deans lived in the house before the June 11 tornado destroyed it and another building where dozens of Boy Scouts had taken shelter. Four Scouts in the other building were killed.
The tornado destroyed much of the camp, which sits on 1,800 acres, and damaged or took down thousands of trees. In addition, debris was left scattered over portions of the 25 miles of trails on the property.
Boy Scout officials said today that they will spend $1.8 million to restore the camp, plant trees, build roads and safer shelters, and rebuild the house where the Dean family lived.
Dean said the tornado hit the family's house fast. Dean said he had seen storm clouds coming, so his wife, 7-year-old son Axton, Avin and 3-month-old daughter Aizley went to the middle of the house, in a utility room. As the conditions worsened, he said, the family hurried back to a utility closet and Dean covered his wife and children with a blanket just as the closet door was being ripped off the frame.
"It happened so fast," he said. The family was trapped for at least five minutes before the Scouts dug them out. Afterward, the two Scouts gathered tools and began helping at the shelter where the four Scouts were killed and more than 40 were injured.
Mason, who attended the press conference at the Mid-America Council office in Omaha, said the moments leading up to the rescue were a blur: "I kind of don't remember any of that. It just happened."
Except for a bright pink cast on Tammy Dean's arm - she suffered a shattered thumb - and a large cut on her arm underneath the cast, the Dean family was in good health. Nathan Dean said he still has problems with his back, but "everything else is pretty minor, because we are here talking."
The family thanked the scouting community as a whole and the support that has poured in from the Scouting world.
"We just can't say thank you enough," Tammy Dean said.
The Dean family's home will be rebuilt within three months, Scouting officials said.
And despite what happened, they're eager to get back.
"The camp is part of my heart and soul," Nathan Dean, a self-described outdoorsman said. "I love my job. I wouldn't give it up for any other job in the world."
As for overall camp restoration, no official timeline is in place. Scouting officials said it could take years to completely clean up, reconstruct buildings and build additional facilities. A memorial is being planned in honor of the Boy Scouts who died there.
So far, 135 volunteers have logged more than 1,100 hours cleaning up the camp.
The Mid-America Council has received $174,000 in donations to restore the camp. Donations can be sent to: Mid-America Council, Attention: Little Sioux Recovery, 12401 West Maple Road, Omaha, NE 68164.