6 Boy Scouts & 2 Scout Leaders from Troop No. 162 Missing in Arkansas National Forest (Update: Rescued, Found Safe)

Six Boy Scouts and two troop leaders from Troop No. 162 from Lafayette, Louisiana are still missing in the Ouachita National Forest. They have been missing since this weekend when heavy rains caused flood waters to rise and strand Troop No. 162. There has been no contact with the missing Boy Scouts and bad weather has made it difficult to search. The Boy Scouts have been missing since Thursday, May 28.

A Boy Scout troop from Lafayette, Louisiana, is missing after camping this weekend in a national forest in Arkansas.

Arkansas emergency official Tommy Jackson said the search by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office for Troop No. 162 continues in the Ouachita National Forest.

According to Boy Scout officials, no one heard from them by late Sunday.

One park official, who spoke with the Scouts on Thursday, remembered seeing the boys’ vans, and spotted the vehicles outside the Winding Staircase entrance to the Eagle Rock trail late Sunday night, Hawkins said.
‘It was still pouring down rain (and) pitch black last night, so there was really no way to start a search-and-rescue effort,’ he said.
Instead, search teams headed toward the forest after daybreak Monday, but bouts of heavy rain have their efforts.

Authorities had not located the boys – or even made contact with them – by nightfall Monday.

UPDATE I: Missing boy scouts rescued in Arkansas