LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Forest Service plans to reopen portions of the Albert Pike Recreation Area for daytime use this week, bringing visitors back to the site where rapidly rising nighttime floodwaters killed 20 people in 2010.
But the site’s future as a camping destination remains unknown.
The entire recreation area, part of the Ouachita National Forest in Montgomery County, has remained largely closed since the June 2010 storm, which hydrologists have called a freak event that triggered water levels exceeding a 500-year flood.
“I know it’s a very tragic event, and it’s certainly one I hope never happens again,” said Brian Bunt, a Longview, Texas, attorney who has camped at Albert Pike since he was a child in the 1970s.
Before the flood, Bunt took his two sons to the recreation area every year to kayak and camp.
On June 11, 2010, the quickly churning Little Missouri River rose quickly and unexpectedly during the night, filling Loops C and D of the recreation area and sweeping away RVs, tents and people, who clung to tree branches in an effort to resist the current.
Shortly before dawn, the water depths reached from 5 feet to 7 feet in Loop D, and the current rushed at about 7.5 miles per hour, a U.S. Geological Survey report said.
“It was shocking, very sad,” Bunt said, adding that some fellow Longview residents were camping at Albert Pike at the time.
But the tragedy didn’t sour him on the campgrounds. Bunt hopes the Forest Service will make improvements — such as boosting reception for weather radios in the valley and installing alarms in the event of flooding — and reopen the area for camping.
“I would really hate that area never be open for camping again,” Bunt said.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, Loops A and B and the East Beach will be open for day use from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., but the site will remain off limits for overnight camping.
Loops A and B were open for day use shortly after the flood, but they closed again in October 2010.
Ouachita National Forest officials plan to complete site surveys to assess the land’s risks and hold public hearings to determine interest in the area before opening Loops C and D or considering camping in the area, Forest Service spokesman Tracy Farley said.
“No decisions have been made regarding the future of the entire recreation area,” she said. “There’s been a lot of interest in Albert Pike, and most of it has been in reopening.”
Farley said park employees have worked to address public safety concerns by posting hazard signs, clearing debris and fencing off a heavily eroded bank.
“This has been one of our more popular areas,” she said.
A memorial to the victims now sits on private land nearby.
Some of the flood’s survivors have previously told the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
that they would eventually like to see the site reopened for camping after the area is improved. Others have said the area should remain closed indefinitely.
The flood has also spurred a series of wrongful-death lawsuits by mourning family members who claim the Forest Service could have done more to alert campers of a potential flood.
An October 2010 report compiled by a U.S. Department of Agriculture-appointed review team criticized forest personnel for disregarding advice from scientists, relying on flawed information and ignoring a documented history of flooding when Loop D sites were constructed.
And even though Loop D was within a 100-year flood plain, Ouachita National Forest employees never posted floodwarning signs, which violates agency guidelines, the report said.
The later report by the U.S. Geological Survey said there is a less than a 1 percent chance of such a flood occurring again in any given year.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/23/2012