16 confirmed dead, dozens missing in flooded campgrounds in Arkansas

[cali]

Flash Floods in Arkansas Kill 16 People
By EVIN DEMIREL
Published: June 11, 2010



LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At least 16 people were killed and dozens more were unaccounted for after flash floods swept through campgrounds in western Arkansas on Friday, state officials said.
The New York Times

Helicopters dispatched by the National Guard were crisscrossing the area around Camp Albert Pike in the Ouachita Mountains, about 75 miles west of Little Rock, on Friday afternoon in search of the missing, according to Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the state police.

“We don’t know who, or how many,” Mr. Sadler said.

State officials said they could not recall so destructive a flash flood in recent Arkansas history.

Rains that began in the area at sunset on Thursday saturated the ground before the heaviest downpours arrived between 12:30 a.m and 4 a.m. Central time on Friday, said Chris Buonanno, a science and operations officer with the National Weather Service’s Little Rock office. The rain ran off into the Little Missouri River in Montgomery and Pike counties so quickly that the river west of Caddo Gap rose more than 20 feet overnight, from 3 feet to 23.5 feet.

In the rocky terrain of the region, “it doesn’t take much to get up high like that,” said Tabitha Clark, a National Weather Serve hydrologist at the office.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/12flood.html