OUACHITA NATIONAL FOREST — Some people awoke to roaring floodwaters. Others were roused by panicked banging on their cabin doors. At least a few got out of bed and were plunged almost immediately into deep, churning water.
Vacationing families camped in a remote Arkansas valley had only a moment or two in the darkness to escape from the worst flood to hit this area in nearly 30 years. For at least 18 people, it wasn’t enough.
The deadly wall of water that rushed through a region southwest of Little Rock struck with such force that witnesses could hear trees being ripped apart and lumber buckling in homes that had been smashed.
Terry Whatley was staying at the Albert Pike Recreation Area with a group of about 35 friends and relatives. About 3:30 a.m. Friday, someone pounded on the door of his camper to warn of the rising water.
He gathered everyone and got out into ankle-deep water. Soon it rose to up to their chests as they tried to reach higher ground.
“I just started thinking to myself, ‘This is a bad way to die,’ ” said Whatley, whose group included three people who were confirmed killed in the flash flood.
The raging floodwaters killed at least 18 people before dawn Friday and left in their wake a path of destruction marked by cars hurled into trees, heavily damaged or destroyed cabins, even pavement that had been peeled off roads and bark off trees.
Vacationers were drawn by the campground’s rustic landscape: a lush valley ringed with mountains on the southern edge of the Ouachita National Forest. But by the early Friday, heavy rains had turned the Caddo and Little Missouri rivers into lethal torrents.
In seconds, survivors had to decide how to save their lives and those of their loved ones. Some clung to trees or climbed on top of cars bobbing like boats in the swift current.
Terry Scott figures he got lucky. His wife woke him at 4 a.m. By 4:30, the cabin was flooded with jade-colored water.
“There’s just no place for it to go,” said Scott, who went back to survey the damage after the water had started to recede. He said he cannot afford to rebuild.
Whatley’s 24-year-old son, Matt, and a friend, J.D. Quinn, were sitting on the porch of a nearby cabin as the water rose. They soon started trying to warn people in cabins and campers.
“You couldn’t hear anything,” Quinn said. “Just lumber and houses being destroyed and trees ripping. We couldn’t even talk to each other when we were in the water.”
Vehicles and bodies were carried several miles downstream by the rushing water. Among the dead was a 6-year-old girl who slipped from her mother’s grasp in the current, a local pastor said.
As the water receded at Camp Albert, scenes of the devastation remained: a smashed stroller with children’s booties and flip-flops scattered nearby, tents torn to ribbons, a car wrapped around a tree, hunks of rock and earth deposited indiscriminately onto roads and campsites.
The possessions left behind underscored how quickly the danger came. At campsite A9, a trailer was smashed into a tree. A fly swatter, skillet and some coffee mugs on a table were all that remained. Next door, at site A10, the only thing left was an American flag nailed to a post.
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At least six children among 18 victims:
At least six of the 18 people confirmed killed in the Arkansas flash flood were children, according to a list released by Gov. Mike Beebe’s office. Among the dead were five people, including three children, from Gloster, La., as well as three others from that state and six from Texas.
Police say 22 still missing:
State police said Saturday evening that 22 people were still missing. Teams found just two bodies Saturday. About 200 searchers combed 20 miles of wilderness along the receding rivers in kayaks and canoes, on horseback and on ATVs. Crews were expected to break at nightfall and resume at daybreak today.
Officials tour:
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell toured the devastated area, and President Barack Obama expressed his condolences to the victims Saturday and offered Arkansas federal assistance. The Associated Press
