More than 80 scouts sent to hospital from heat exhaustion at World Jamboree opening ceremony

[gpurlee 247]

It sounds like this is an unmitigated disaster that goes beyond the extreme heat and rests with poor planning and preparation.  Ultimately the host organization bears the primary responsibility for ensuring safe conditions and contingency plans. This unfortunately is likely to have a lasting impact on future jamborees when thousands of participants have a horrible experience. I am very sorry for those involved. There will be months of evaluation and review that will affect all future planning and decisions.

 I believe that the next world jamboree was scheduled for Poland but the war in neighboring Ukraine has led the world organization to look for other potential venues. This includes the Summit site. However, the cycles between the US national jamboree and the world jamboree are now identical.   It would take some major timing adjustments. And if the present world jamboree (or national jamboree for that matter) turns out to be a significant financial loss, then there will be even more hesitancy to host a future jamboree.

[RememberSchiff 3683]

6 minutes ago, yknot said:

They are 120 miles away at Camp Humphries. It's not possible to hike in if that's what you mean. 

Sorry for confusion.

My thought was to drop contingent at Jambo entrance and walk as a group to closing ceremony. A simple, respectful courtesy to fellow scouts, WOSM, and our Korean hosts.

[yknot 1338]

48 minutes ago, RememberSchiff said:

Sorry for confusion.

My thought was to drop contingent at Jambo entrance and walk as a group to closing ceremony. A simple, respectful courtesy to fellow scouts, WOSM, and our Korean hosts.

The information is conflicting but at this point it doesn't seem like that would be helpful. The Korean hosts wanted WOSM to end the event before the closing ceremony so the best courtesy towards them might be to stay away. A lot will depend on how the weather forecast unfolds. 

[RememberSchiff 3683]

Trying to repair bridges.... leave on a united, positive note.

What if all gathered to another venue, say one of the large stadiums in Seoul, for closing.

Seoul World Cup Stadium has 66,700 seats, about 90min from Incheon International Airport.

Another $0.01

 

[AwakeEnergyScouter 247]

The more I read about this, the less I feel like I know what's going on. In other words, I will be waiting for the postmortems to decide what I think.

It's difficult to get a full picture from these kinds of shorter articles and NSO updates when they only partially overlap in what scouts are saying. I doubt any of the scouts are lying or misrepresenting, but the Finnish scout's mention of that the US scouts had had it worse than the Finnish scouts makes me wonder about the village-to-village differences. The Swedes are hosting cultural dinner exchanges with the Australians while the Americans are suffering and evacuating? Can't quite get clear on the overall picture here.

The event could be poorly planned even if some scouts are fine and having a good time, and the event could also have been fairly well planned except for a few impactful planning misses that impacted a minority of scouts very severely. I suspect neither of these is quite what happened, but we shall see.

I saw this article from The Korea Times with a pretty long list of problems, mostly the ones already mentioned in other media posted above, and pictures from scouts that definitely don't look good. I am not familiar with the Korea Times, and the tone of this feels a little sensationalistic, but I'm sharing it anyway because Korean media are the most likely to report on the Jamboree as a whole as opposed to a specific contingent.

https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=356442

[RememberSchiff 3683]

"The Australian contingent confirmed overnight it would be relocating to Seoul, after South Korea's weather bureau confirmed typhoon Khanun was on track to hit Saemangeum later this week."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-07/australian-scouts-withdraw-from-camp-before-typhoon-south-korea/102696744

Korean Meteorological Administration Typhoon Khanun information

https://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/typoon/typhoon_5days.jsp

From forecast issued at(KST) : 2023.08.07. 10:00 KST  Note: ( 2023:08:06 9PM EST) The Jamboree site is south of Seoul on the western side of Korean peninsula.

15 meters/sec ` 33.5mph      ,   25m/sec ~ 60mph

Edited August 7, 2023 by RememberSchiff
KST

[qwazse 4345]

Heartbroken. It took me all day yesterday to come up with the word for how I feel. It was also how most US SMs feel. The contingent management team, under the guidance of National, is acting against our wishes to remain on site.

The KSA had been very good to us. Health services delivery and sanitation were improving daily. They added multiple mitigation strategies. The youth had adjusted to less movement during the day. Our campsite had a constant stream of visitors trading, bringing coffee, or simply chatting. Then at night things began to pop!
We exchanged this for hours-per-day rides on busses. To whatever features might placate youth. I’m in an underground mall and the boys are making the best of it. They have encountered some Scouts UK, but it’s certainly not the same.

The volunteers at Humphreys are kind and consoling, but they are volunteering in order to comfort the traumatic loss of autonomy we feel. Ad steak and eggs for breakfast makes up for a lot. Hopefully the next couple of days of local fellowship with the garrison’s youth will make up for a lot. Expect BSA-favorable spin on that from National in your inbox soon.

 

[qwazse 4345]

12 hours ago, AwakeEnergyScouter said:

… but the Finnish scout's mention of that the US scouts had had it worse than the Finnish scouts makes me wonder about the village-to-village differences. …

Each US unit was in a different subcamp, so there was variation in hydrology. No two pieces of drained seabed are alike! This is no surprise.
But, US and Brit camps were also worse simply by virtue of arriving a day late. 

[RememberSchiff 3683]

Remaining 36,000 Jambo scouts to be evacuated starting Tues morning (local time) ahead of typhoon arrival.

"Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.

The announcement came after The World Organization of the Scout Movement said it had urgently called on South Korea to move the scouts from the storm's path and "provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries." ...David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.

Officials at Camp Humphreys, a major U.S. military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, did not immediately confirm reports that thousands of scouts from Sweden, Norway and Denmark were to be transferred to its facilities. "

Matt Hyde, the UK Scouts chief executive, said the £1m cost of relocating their 4,500 member contingent will affect the work of the Scout Association for the next 5 years.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66425793

https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-jamboree-scouts-storm-khanun-3427a308cbca3c573bcffc9d3e0cdc8a

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-world-scout-jamboree-typhoon-khanun-evacuations/

Edited August 7, 2023 by RememberSchiff

[RememberSchiff 3683]

3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

Matt Hyde, the UK Scouts chief executive, said the £1m cost of relocating their 4,500 member contingent will affect the work of the Scout Association for the next 5 years.

 

[yknot 1338]

Relieved to hear they are all evacuating. 

[Eagle1993 2161]

What a disaster.  US/UK scouts look like they were thinking ahead now that the entire Jambo is cancelled early and everyone is scrambling.  WOSM needs to be better prepared. 

[sierracharliescouter 85]

1 hour ago, Eagle1993 said:

WOSM needs to be better prepared. 

Pretty amazing statement to have to say about a scouting organization.

I'd say there is a lot of blame to go around. As far as BSA is concerned, if I had the responsibility of sending 600 people to go camping in a foreign country, I'd like to think I'd have been asking more pressing questions ahead of sending the contingent. NCAP exists for a reason. It should be policy that when sending a contingent NCAP standards are compared to the event standards, and decisions can be made about what "good enough" would be, since holding World to US NCAP standards can reasonably be judged as too stringent.

I have to wonder if there were any real written "standards" for this event.

Edited August 7, 2023 by sierracharliescouter

[Eagle1993 2161]

1 hour ago, sierracharliescouter said:

Pretty amazing statement to have to say about a scouting organization.

I'd say there is a lot of blame to go around. As far as BSA is concerned, if I had the responsibility of sending 600 people to go camping in a foreign country, I'd like to think I'd have been asking more pressing questions ahead of sending the contingent. NCAP exists for a reason. It should be policy that when sending a contingent NCAP standards are compared to the event standards, and decisions can be made about what "good enough" would be, since holding World to US NCAP standards can reasonably be judged as too stringent.

I have to wonder if there were any real written "standards" for this event.

Fully agree. YPT barriers to abuse are not international, if the setup prevents those barriers then BSA should have identified that early. Just one of many examples.  

[RememberSchiff 3683]

This all seems backwards to me. The Korean people are facing a typhoon but their government, as Jamboree host, seems focused on entertaining 40,000 scouts and otherwise making amends. A typhoon is coming!

Yes, move scouts to a safer location. However, grateful scouts should be preparing to help others weather this storm - working with and not burdening local government services, and certainly not going on hours-long mall shopping trips.

WOSM, time to show the world what 40,000 scouts can do in an emergency! Hint, it is not attending a rock concert in a storm's aftermath.

Another $0.02,

Edited August 8, 2023 by RememberSchiff