Flash Flood Strikes Campground in the NIght - 16 dead, 36 Missing

June 11, 2010. Flash floods swept through the Albert Pike campground in western Arkansas overnight, killing at least 16 people as they slept and leaving an estimated 36 missing, state officials said on Friday. A wall of water, triggered by heavy rains that swelled the Little Missouri River to 20 feet , caught victims asleep in their tents at the campground in the Ouachita Mountains west of Little Rock, authorities said.

The death toll was revised down to 16 from the 20 that was previously reported, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said. Children were among the dead. She added that officials did not know how many people were missing "as we don't know how many people were there." Television images showed cabins reduced to rubble and mobile homes and vehicles overturned by the waters. Survivors described how the water hit "like a tsunami" in the middle of the night, demolishing wooden cabins and carrying away vehicles and tents with people inside.The Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas, is popular with hikers and families on holiday in recreational vehicles.

A massive rescue operation involving helicopters, boats and horses was launched in the rugged, mountainous region. The worst hit area was the Albert Pike campground, where hundreds of people were staying.Two dozen campers were treated in hospital and a further 60 were rescued having fled to higher ground. Officials said more than 40 people were still unaccounted for.
According to the Red Cross there may have been up to 300 people in the area when the floods hit.Officials did not know exactly how many campers there were because many set up base at scattered sites across the hiking country.

The floods happened after two rivers, the Caddo and Little Missouri, rose by six metres (20ft) in the night, following heavy rain.
Janice McRae, who lives in the park, said: "A huge amount of water came down almost like a tsunami. A lot of families got separated. There were campers floating down the river, vehicles floating down the river, and trees washing up. We rescued two boys off the top of a cabin. Their grandparents were in the water and we got them out. It was a while before anyone could get in here because we had cave-ins on the road. One woman put her kids in a pick-up but before they could get it in reverse it started floating away. Another car crashed into them and threw them into the water. She was hanging on to a tree in the darkness."

Stacy McNeil from Marshall, Texas, a camper who survived, said: "We huddled together, and prayed like we'd never prayed before."
The campground was packed with holidaying families, many of them from Louisiana and Texas.
Arkansas police spokesman Bill Sadler said: "The primary mission is to get the living out of there that have been trapped."
Officials brought a refrigerated truck to the forest to act as a temporary morgue.

The Ouachita National Forest sprawls over 1.8 million acres (700,000 hectares) of western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma.Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said: "They probably had no warning that the water was coming. It was a very rapid flash flood that inundated that area."

It seems that people are not safe anywhere any more. Climate change is a bitch.