Scouts from Wiltshire have described the chaos of the World Scout Jamboree where children had to be evacuated due to a heatwave, food issues, sanitation problems and an oncoming typhoon.
The international event in South Korea descended into bedlam after it soon transpired that camp was not equipped for the thousands of visiting scouts.
The Wiltshire contingent, which consisted of scouts from 36 groups across the county, attended the event in Saemangeum, North Jeolla and were supposed to stay from August 1 to August 12.
But within three days of arriving the UK contingent of scouts were told they were going to be evacuated.
The Wiltshire subcamp left Saemangeum and took coaches to Seoul where they spent the rest of the trip until August 16.
Shortly after the UK contingent was evacuated the rest of the camp was evacuated due to an oncoming Typhoon.
Scout Leader Mark Allen, 50 was one of the four who was responsible for the group. He said the site was quickly overwhelmed by the situation.
"The vast majority of people in the hospital were there because they collapsed with sunstroke.
“The result of such extreme heat on medical facilities wasn’t great, they were getting overwhelmed.
"They were calling the army in to help run the medical facilities because they were just getting overwhelmed and even the local hospitals were apparently getting people shipped in because the onsite hospital couldn’t cope.”
Lawrie Tonkin, 17, a Scout explorer from Wroughton, told the Swindon Advertiser: “I don’t think the site was as ready as it should have been for the number of people there, and the heat wave didn’t help because everyone needed more water.
“I don’t think they had realised everything that they would need until they got there and by then it was a bit late.
“It was very irritating. I think they were under-prepared."
Sarah-Kate Bridgewater, Lawrie’s mother, commended the actions of Mark and the rest of his team in how well they dealt with the situation.
She said she was not worried because she knew Lawrie was in such good hands.
“It was difficult because we didn't have a lot of communication because they were trying to sort things out on the ground”
“I was sad for him for the few days when they pulled the UK contingent out and he was getting the Jamboree that he thought he was going to get."
Despite the challenges they faced Lawrie and Mark still said that they had a great time.
Lawrie said: “People still had a very good time even though it wasn’t what we were expecting”.
Scouts UK, Chief Executive, Matt Hyde said: “We were concerned about young people and adult volunteers’ safety and there were four reasons for that.
“The first is that we were particularly concerned about sanitation and the cleanliness of toilets that were causing severe concerns from us from a health and safety point of view.
“In addition to that we were concerned about food and those with dietary requirements in particular and the amount of food that was available.
“We were also concerned about the heat, it is punishingly hot here in Korea. It is an unprecedented heat wave, but we were concerned about the heat relief measures that were being put in place and finally, we were concerned about medical services.
"We are disappointed in the organisation and the organisers, and we do feel let down”.
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