Search Continues After Fatal Flooding in Arkansas - 17 dead & dozens still missing (bad to worse)

A damaged RV is seen just off the bank of the Little Missouri river in the Albert Pike recreation area near Caddo Gap

LODI, Ark. — Rescue workers on Saturday resumed their search for survivors of a flash flood that raged through campgrounds in western Arkansas late Thursday night and killed at least 17 people while leaving dozens more missing. The toll rose Saturday morning when a body was discovered close to the campsite.More than 36 hours after the flood, the families of the missing gathered at a church in Lodi miles from the campgrounds — frantic, grieving and waiting for news from the rescue workers.

“There are searchers on foot, by boat and air, and they’re combing the same area as yesterday, as many as 15 miles of river have been covered,” Bill Sadler, public information officer for the Arkansas State Police, said in a telephone interview on Saturday morning. He confirmed that the body of the 17th victim was located at 8:45 a.m. local time at a store not far from the campground.

“The Arkansas State Police will continue to put all the necessary resources that we have into this area and search every inch of that waterway along the banks of the Little Missouri River until everyone is satisfied that those who are missing are accounted for,” Mr. Sadler said.

Rescue workers do not have an accurate count of how many people might be missing, but about 300 people might have been camping along the Caddo and Little Missouri Rivers when the waters surged by 20 feet late Thursday into Friday morning, during a rainstorm, according to Red Cross and state emergency officials.

In pitch darkness, terrified families tried to outrace the churning, swiftly rising water, some fleeing up hillsides as tents vanished, recreational vehicles flipped over into the current and rental cabins were demolished.


There's a lot more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/us/13flood.html?pagewanted=1&hp

A short video clip of the area from a helicopter. There is no narration, but Good Gawd! :
http://cfc.katv.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=67413

This is in the Ouachita Mountains. That is a horrible place to search in that terrain and heat. I hope some of the missing made it.
The stories in the article from people that were caught are horrible.

in the Big Thompson Canyon flood west of Loveland, Colorado. Five people's bodies were never recovered. The state had been celebrating its first hundred years of statehood and the area was apparently full of vacationers and celebrants. I wasn't in Colorado at the time, but the tales of this flood stick with me even though there have been other flash floods with loss of life (including a middle of the night flood that took six lives in 1997 in Fort Collins, where I was living at the time). When you drive through that area, on the way to Rocky Mountain National Park and some of the most beautiful areas of Colorado, i still get a queasy feeling because it becomes clear how trapped you would be if a torrential storm like that were to happen again. The danger of flash floods is lost on most people that have not been in areas that experience them...

I feel for those lost in AR and their survivors. What a frightening experience. I hope they manage to find more survivors. Never second guess the power of nature....

I was attending a geology field camp held by the University of Missouri. We would go out to a different area every few days.

One area had deep washes that were dry at that time. I remember walking up one, and the sides were way over my head. You could see a lot of things embedded in them.

My partner and I listened for any hint of bad weather. I was ready to run out of there at a moments notice. I didn't stay long because I was creeped out.

Another area we studied was 'Iron Mountain." It literally had a lot of iron in the rocks. It was used as an exercise because it screwed up our Brunton compasses, and we had to use other means to help us. We were told that if we heard any hint of a storm to drop our hammers and any other metal and roll to the bottom. i don't remember if they actually said roll, but you were going to if you tried to move fast.

We had one storm there. It was awful and scared the shite out of me. Nobody got hurt.

and learn to anticipate.

I've spent a bit of time in that area of WY as well--Have you been back since?

I'm from SC, and the swamps are where I grew up. I went to college near the Smokies. Talk about different for me. At night with no lights anywhere nearby, and it was wonderful to actually see the sky. I don't think people who have always lived where there is some light nearby have any idea what it really looks like. The altitude also made a difference.

BTW, swamps aren't dirty, colorless places. A lot of people think they are. The brown water is due to the tannin from the trees. My cousins and I were in them all the time even under threat from our mothers. They would tell us not to get out of earshot.

That was easy because when one of them got on the back porch and hollered for us, the sound would travel for miles. We always wanted to see just how far away we could get and not hear them. We never found that point.

That area was where General Francis Marion fought in the American Revolution. He was called the Swamp Fox. If not for him, I've always wondered if I would have really known about anything but the Civil War until I made it to school.

Virginia, Georgia and have spent quite bit of time in SC. The beauty is different there, but beauty all the same. I'm heartbroken for the Gulf region right now, just beyond words with a little lump jumping up my throat whenever I think of it...

Good to hear that some of the earlier (pre-"war of Northern Aggression") history came through... I experienced similar in LA and GA, but I sure learned a lot about the civil war--and actually not always too one-sided ;) )

Were they not warned about the storm? I often wonder if people who are camping pay attention to weather forecasts.

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning around 2 a.m., after the heaviest rains had started, according to The Associated Press. By then, the disaster was already unfolding, and in any case, state officials said, the terrain and lack of cellphone service in the valleys made communications difficult.

People are already in their beds

"The National Weather Service issued a flood warning around 2 a.m., after the heaviest rains had started, according to The Associated Press. By then, the disaster was already unfolding, and in any case, state officials said, the terrain and lack of cellphone service in the valleys made communications difficult."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/us/13flood.html?pagewanted=1&hp

People from that area and a few in a small store there were also caught. They said they had never seen that happen. There had been floods before, but nothing like this one. If the locals heard the flood warnings, they didn't move either.

It was another storm with a combination of factors that nobody had ever foreseen. I don't even know what to say.

:cry:

If you ask the average summer tourist in CO who chooses a low lying area right next to the raging creek or river what they will do if it starts to rain, you'll get a chuckle to the effect of waking up floating down river or such nonsense and that they guess they'd have to load up the kids and check into a hotel, restoring them (happily)to their tv and video games.

I doubt most even consider that the way out might be quickly blocked and how rapidly a thunderstorm can turn into something uncontrollable. It doesn't occur to them that they should monitor the weather, because they've never experienced such a thing.

doesn't he live in that area?

dg