Boy Scouts Rescued From Grand Canyon

Aug. 19, 2008 — -- When the six Boy Scouts from suburban Maplewood, N.J., went camping in the Grand Canyon, they expected an adventure they would long talk about, but they did not expect to be clinging to treetops and praying to survive a flash flood.

The six Scouts and three adult leaders were eventually guided to safety by American Indians who live in the area, and plucked out of the wilderness by a Black Hawk helicopter. By the time they flew away, the 10-yard-wide canyon next to a stream where they had been camping had become a 300-yard-wide raging river.

The scouts and their leaders were among more than 200 people rescued from the flash floods that followed heavy rains and the failure of a dam this past weekend. Rescuers were still combing the vast national park for 11 campers who were either washed away, are still in the park, or have simply gone home and are unaware that people are searching for them.

For the Jersey scouts, however, the flood was a test of their motto to "Be Prepared." Through a harrowing night and the next day, the Scouts earned their badges, said Kevin Muench, who was along on the trip with two of his sons, Colin, 13, and Tommy, 11.

"It was part of their preparedness," said Muench, a dentist who has reveled in wilderness camping since his teens. "The Scouts, when they needed to do something, they did it. When they needed to hike, they really hiked."

The troop had been camping for about a week when they set up their tents next to a stream in the narrow canyon. A ranger came by Saturday and told them to move to higher ground "because floodwaters are coming," Muench said. "He said there was a threat of a washout."

They packed up and moved a bit higher. At 1 a.m., they were roused again.

"They woke everybody up saying the floodwaters are coming. You better get up," Muench said from Las Vegas, where the group was recuperating.

It was the beginning of a long, frightening night.

"The scariest thing at night was you could hear the trees snapping and breaking, but you couldn't see them," he said.

If the night was scary, the morning was worse.

"In the morning, where we had been was totally washed out," Muench said. "We had become an island. There was water to the right and left of us."

Stranded with them were several college kids and a family. The American Indians, who were equipped with walkie-talkies, tried to rig a rope bridge for the stranded campers, but Muench said they decided it was too risky for the kids.