The Arkansas floods, 6/11/2010

[KBCraig]

We offer our prayers and thoughts for all those lost, missing, or injured by the flash floods along the Little Missouri and Caddo rivers.

We were camping next door at Shady Lake. It's just a few miles away, but it's a different watershed (Little River instead of Caddo). We had a lot of water and some road damage (for a while we thought we would have to spend another night). It's hard to imagine that just five miles away at Bard Springs, people were killed.

This is why you have to respect mountain rivers. I grew up in that area, and Dad always taught me that before picking a place to camp, look around at the trees: it's amazing how high up in the trees you'll find flood debris.

A lot of people from the flatlands where I now live, like to camp in that area. I always think they don't really believe me when I tell them a creek or river can flood overnight and be back down by daylight, with no evidence other than the flood debris. And they can do that when it doesn't even rain where you're camping: the water comes from upstream, after all.

Well, the Little Missouri went from 3 feet to 23.5 feet, and back down to 7 feet, in about 8 hours.

Be careful, folks. The same thing can happen in the hills of NH that just happened in the hills of Arkansas.

[Pat K]

Man I was a bit worried and am glad you posted.

[KBCraig]

Thanks, Pat. It was nice to get home to some Facebook messages asking about us. (We had made all the family phone calls as soon as we had cell service, about an hour after we left the campground.)

I know I shouldn't indulge in it, but I couldn't help but look at some of the footage. The grandparents who showed up to find the fate of their kids and grandkids who were camping there, only to find that 6 of the 11 were dead, and 5 of those lost were pre-teen kids.... 

Or, the local church youth group that was camping with four adults and nine kids, and thankfully the youth leader sat under the awning of his pop-up all night, and a fortuitous lighting flash revealed that the water was already up to their road. He hustled everyone together at 1:30 a.m., and within 30 minutes the water had gone from ankle deep to waist deep. The bridge and road were already under water, so they marched everyone up a steep cliff and got above the water, then flashed SOS with a flashlight when the rescuers showed up hours later. Because of that awareness, they were all rescued.

Terribly sad for all those who were just up in the hills enjoying a family camp-out, with no clue that something bad could happen.

[Raineyrocks]

Oh my gosh, I had no idea you were this close to that!  I'm glad you guys are okay!   I heard about it on the tv at the hospital yesterday when I was getting lab stuff done.

What are the 1st warning signs for something like this?  It seems like it just happened out of nowhere.