President Bush will address the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Bowling Green, Va., tonight as participants mourn the loss of the four adult leaders who died in a horrifying electrocution mishap on Monday.

The Anchorage Daily News memorializes the fallen Scout leaders, who all hailed from Alaska. AP profiles here.

Here’s the riveting account of Larry Call, who survived the accident. An excerpt:

Larry Call told his wife that he wasn’t sure if it was a few seconds or a few minutes.

But as he gripped the metal pole and hoisted it beneath the sprawling white canopy, he found himself suddenly paralyzed, full of electricity and a pain he has not yet found words to describe.

He was jolted to the ground and lay there, barely conscious under the canvas, Paula Call said in a telephone interview from Alaska. This was the end, he thought. He looked around at it.

There, hurled to the ground along with him were the men with whom he had just been happily working, setting up a huge dining canopy at the National Boy Scout Jamboree, a jubilant moment in their lives as Scout leaders and, for some, as fathers.

There was his close friend, Mike Lacroix, apparently unconscious but breathing. There were Scott E. Powell and Michael J. Shibe — with whom he had planned this trip to Virginia for years — their bodies twitching from the shock. There was the Scoutmaster, Ronald H. Bitzer, his body on fire and smoking.

Call felt himself slipping. At that moment, he told his wife, he was ready to die.

He looked around for his 15-year old son, Kendell. He wanted his son to come to his side, but he couldn’t speak, couldn’t call out his name.

But Kendell, who had witnessed his father’s electrocution, came anyway. And then something happened there on the floor — some words or gestures that no one perceived but them…

I haven’t found any info on memorial funds for the families. Please pass along if you come across.

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Update: The president canceled his trip due to bad weather.

Thanks to readers for pointing out that the Anchorage paper listed the following ways to help the victims’ families:

How to help

• Cards and letters of condolence may be sent to the families in care of Western Alaska Council, 3117 Patterson St., Anchorage 99504.

• An Alaska credit union has set up an account to help the families of the four Scout leaders killed Monday at the Boy Scout Jamboree. Donations to the Scout Memorial Fund, account No. 80487, can be made at Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union branches, which are located in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Wasilla. Donations can be designated for any of the individual men, Ron Bitzer, Michael Lacroix, Michael Shibe and Scott Powell, or a general donation may be made to the fund that will be divided among their families.

• Mailed donations for the Boy Scout account can be sent to Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union at 3400 LaTouche St., Anchorage, AK 99508. The credit union can be reached by phone at 1-907-257-7200 or 1-800-764-1123.

• Alaska’s Congressional delegation has set up a hot line for Alaskans seeking information or trying to reach Scouts at the Jamboree: 1-202-228-3029.

Another memorial fund site is up at the Boy Scouts’ Western Alaska Council page. Thanks to everyone who sent the links and info.

Keep the Scouts in your thoughts and prayers.

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