LANGLEY, Ark. — Crews got to work Sunday looking for bodies in the many piles of debris that collected after a flash flood swept through a popular campground, as police drastically cut their search to just three missing campers.
Authorities haven't been able to contact some of the nearly two dozen people who hadn't been accounted for Saturday, but they don't believe those people were in the Albert Pike Recreation Area, the section of the Ouachita National Forest hardest hit by flooding, State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.
Cell phone service is poor in the area, and authorities fielded calls from worried relatives about at least 73 people who couldn't be reached after the pre-dawn Friday flood that killed at least 18 people. A register that would have showed who was staying at the campground was washed away in the flood.
Crews have searched most of the 20-mile area down river of the campground, so they focused their search effort Sunday on clearing the many tangled piles of debris that collected along Little Missouri River.
Hopes of finding anyone else alive wilted in the oppressive heat and humidity that blanketed the area all weekend. Temperatures Sunday were expected to reach 97 degrees.
In the nearby town of Lodi, the group of anxious survivors and relatives who took sanctuary at a church while waiting for word of missing loved ones had thinned noticeably on Sunday.
Graig Cowart, the pastor of the Pilgrim Rest Landmark Missionary Baptist Church who has tended to them, took them to the campground for a Sunday morning service.
He said Saturday that he planned to read a verse from the Book of Romans that conveys the message that everything comes together for God's good. He said the message could help them in the difficult days ahead.
