August 6th, 1971

Headline for today: Two Japanese support scouts tighten up their wind blown tent during yesterday's typhoon.

The night of August 5th was when the skies opened up and typhoon force winds slammed into the Jamboree site. About 9pm we went into our tents, looking forward to the activities on friday. It had started to rain lightly just before bedtime, but the four of us in the tent zipped into our sleeping bags not thinking much about it. It was sometime later we woke up and found that water was seeping into the tent, flooding all of our things.

Looking out we saw the entire campsite starting to flood and at that point we decided we needed to get out of there. Typhoon (Hurricane) #19, also named Typhoon Olive left a trail of collapsed tents as many campsites were turned into a quagmire of mud. Troop 334's site was flooded by about three inches of water that chased us out of our tents in the middle of the night. Most of us found refuge in a first-aid tent on higher ground, but most of our camping equipment and supplies were wet and soggy. Any tent that was not anchored down securley was in danger of being blown away, indeed our dining fly tent collapsed and blew away.

Most of Friday, August 6th we spent at the first aid tent. It was very strong canvas and inside were about 50-75 scouts from all around the world, taking shelter during the storm. We seemed to be fine in the tent, but in other parts of the Jamboree, the dining tent of the Jamboree General Headquartrs was hit by lightning and the lights inside the tent were droopng badly, posing an electrical hazard to those inside. The press center on top of a hill across from the Jamboree area blew down and was put back up. Then a few minutes later, the tent collapsed again and litterally blew away.

After the storm passed on friday afternoon, a quick inspection of our campsite revealed only slight damage. There was about 2 or 3 inches of water on the ground, however it was quickly draining away. A few scouts from France close to us had to relocate to a new area, and they were assisted by some Japanese Self-Defense personnel.

Typhoon Olive essentially brought the World Jamboree to a temporarily scheechng halt.