A National Guard helicopter plucked six stranded Louisiana Boy Scouts from a southwest Arkansas forest Tuesday morning and delivered them safely to nervous parents waiting at a camp supply store nearby.
The boys and two adult leaders had been missing since Sunday, when rising water cut off their exit from the Albert Pike Recreation Area. Twenty people died in flash floods here last June 11, and the boys' parents had prayed and paced since arriving in the area Monday.
The helicopter crew spotted a campfire and some of the Scouts overnight Monday, then headed out again at first light.
"Our pilots had to wait on sunlight to be able to get in and land. We just got in and pulled them out," Maj. Chris Heathscott said in an email to The Associated Press.
The parents waited Monday night at a local church, in a scene eerily similar to one nearly a year before. Families, miles away from home, waited with pastor Graig Cowart for news on whether their loved ones had survived the rising water.
"These people are really hurting," he said. "They felt really alone and isolated."
Cowart led the families in prayer, calling out the names of the stranded boys and asking for their safety. Relatives joined hands.
Some cried. Some held each other. Cowart recited the last verse of the 27th Psalm, which says: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
To read the full story, please visit: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/03/135948326/relatives-pray-for-6-scouts-missing-in-arkansas-forest
No comments:
Post a Comment