By ANDREW DEMILLO and CHUCK BARTELS
Associated Press Writers
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.
He said those people are likely camping elsewhere in Arkansas, and that’s why they haven’t been reachable.
“Typically when people go on vacation or camping trips, they want to turn those cell phones off,” Sadler said. “That’s the reason they’re on vacation.”
The number of missing has varied wildly since the floods hit partially because authorities have struggled to figure out exactly who was in the campground. Cell phone service is poor in the area, and authorities fielded calls 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.
Crews have searched most of the 20-mile area down river of the campground, so they focused their search effort Sunday on using bulldozers and chainsaws to clear the many tangled piles of debris that collected along Little Missouri River.