Posted on 06/11/2010 12:54:09 PM PDT by JoeProBono
CADDO GAP, Ark. (AP) -- Flash floods swamped valley campgrounds along a pair of southwestern Arkansas rivers early Friday, killing 16 and leaving anguished families pleading with emergency workers for help in finding dozens of missing people.
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They're still searching.
“...the water kept rising throughout the night, at one point topping the tool box in the back of the truck.”
Oh Lord . . .
prayer heavenward.
This is a horrible situation. A NOAA weather radio is essential at home, camping, etc and people should heed the flash flood warnings, seek higher ground.
Flood stage is hardly ever reached immediately with the rainfall.
It may come hour(s) later. Know when you may be in a Flood Hazard area and move to higher ground. It can save your life.
Prayers for the families and those who are working the rescue efforts.
Some of the most beautiful places in America. And if you decide to canoe the Caddo you’d better be skilled. And that doesn’t include a flood. My skill level was the Buffalo River.
So sad for all these people.
Well, you’d think they would have gone to the camp to wake these people. We have Tornado sirens that go off in the dead of night. I’m not sure they had ANY warning. But it’s easy to look back..
“Police say 16 dead, dozens missing in Ark. floods”
generally, an ark is very good in floods
Where in Ark are you?
Zero will launch relief efforts at any moment...just ask Tennessee.
What part of the Caddo are you referring too? Below DeGray, the river is quite floatable by the novice, even when the water gets up some (which is every day with generation). Now - I have never been on the upper end, above the lake.
Speaking of the Caddo - one of my favorite fishing holes is on the Caddo at Caddo Valley. When I use to work band camp over at HSU, I would spend my off hours over there wade fishing. No telling how many hundreds of fish I caught and released over the years down there. Beautiful. Hmmm....
spectre—I would think park rangers would have warned the campers. Sirens are found down stream of dams where the gates are routinely opened, but not sure if this area had any warning system.
I hate stories like this.
I can remember years ago when this happened on the Big Thompson in Colorado.
"Even if people attempted to leave at the first sign of danger - maybe that was the water lapping at their sleeping bags - water climbing higher and higher along the valley walls may already have inundated a number of low-water crossings, trapping them, Clarke said."
It’s a terrible thing that happened. I have to wonder who the hell puts a campground on a flood plane though. Hell I learned back in my early 20s that you don’t camp in a flood plane. The problem here wasn’t the river. It was the location of the campground.
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
At 1,469 miles (2,364 km), it is the sixth longest river in the United States,[1] the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville, and its mouth is at Napoleon, Arkansas. The Arkansas River drainage basin covers nearly 195,000 sq mi
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