Albert Pike remains closed while victims, officials debate its future

This June 12, 2010 file photo shows John Nichols with the US Forest Service climbs away from debris at the Albert Pike Campground in Montgomery County.
This June 12, 2010 file photo shows John Nichols with the US Forest Service climbs away from debris at the Albert Pike Campground in Montgomery County.

— In years past, Janice McRae found serenity at her remote cabin, perched on the bank of the murmuring, sun-dappled Little Missouri River.

Her family has lived on this land for five generations. They own and operate Lowery’s Camp Albert Pike RV Park and Cabins. Memories abound there.

Not all of them are good.

A Camper shares emotional tale of survival.

Arkansas Flood Survival Story

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On June 11, in the hours just before dawn, the Little Missouri surged from its banks and swept through the Albert Pike Recreation Area, which, as a portion of the Ouachita National Forest, sits adjacent to Janice’s property.

Twenty people - eight of them children - died in what hydrologists would later describe as an event exceeding a 500-year flood.

It’s been nearly 10 months since the disaster.

On Lowery land, all but five cabins have been rebuilt. Janice no longer will allow RVs, but rental cabins are available. Lowery’s camp store has reopened.

Things are getting back to normal. And camping season is rapidly approaching.

On the U.S. Forest Service’s land, the recreation area and campgrounds remain deserted.

Asphalt and concrete rubble litter the hardest-hit campgrounds. Posts strung together with orange netting block the entrances to the once-popular recreation area.

On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service announced that the entire Albert Pike Recreation Area will remain closed indefinitely while officials decide what to do with the park. Day use also will be prohibited.

Janice was dismayed.

“When there are other natural disasters, they start fixing it back,” she said. “Even in other countries, we send money to fix it back. But yet when it’s right in our own backyard, we rope it off and leave it there.”

And, she added, despite what happened, people are returning, with or without the Forest Service’s permission.

One recent Saturday, when a Forest Service law enforcement officer dropped by the swimming hole once shared by Lowery’s and the federal campground, Janice pointed out the 20 or so people behind the barricade, reveling in the cool water and peaceful scenery.

“Please don’t give those people a ticket,” she said. “But look - they want to come back.”

No one staying on Lowery land died in the June 11 flood.

Cabin owners and those camping in RVs managed to evacuate in time. But from higher ground they watched in horror as a sharp bend in the river served as a slingshot for the churning Little Missouri, which hurled RVs, cars and helpless people onto Janice’sland.

They came from Loop D, a portion of the federal campground about a mile upstream.

Janice mourned the losses and, as a devout woman of faith, tried to answer a questioned posed often: Why?

At the same time, she still has a business to run, one that relies on tourism.

She doesn’t understand the U.S. Forest Service’s seeming reluctance to make a decision.

Last August, Loops A and B were reopened for day use before closing for the winter in late October. Asked why those loops won’t reopen this year, Forest Service spokesman Tracy Farley said only that all four loops will remain closed indefinitely.

A news release issued by the agency Monday said people may visit other portions of the river within the Ouachita National Forest for fishing, canoeing and kayaking and that officials this spring will begin a “planning and public involvement effort focused on future recreation uses and facilities at the Albert Pike Recreation Area.”

Said forest supervisor Norman Wagoner: “In light of last June’s tragedy, we must review alternatives for future public uses and facilities. ... We will offer a variety of opportunities for interested citizens to be engaged in the process.”

Those seeking to be included on the agency’s Albert Pike mailing list can send requests to carolinemitchell@fs.fed.us.

The fate of Albert Pike has proved a divisive topic.

Some survivors want to see significant changes made before Albert Pike reopens. They’ve suggested installing a warning system or moving camp sites away from the flood plain.

Others say it should never reopen in any form.

A third group says it’s a shame to see such a beautiful place lie dormant, especially given the number of families who have been vacationing there for generations.

The subject has repeatedly sparked heated debate on social-networking sites, travel blogs and vacation-oriented online forums.

In January, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., urged the U.S. Forest Service to “get off high center” and make a decision about Albert Pike.

“They’ve done a study. Now it’s time to make a decision on which campgrounds are going to be open for day use, which ones are going to be closed permanently, and those that are going to be closed permanently, they need to get on with closing them,” he said then.

Families of victims lashed back immediately.

“A decision like this takes time. I believe rushing the process will only make matters worse,” survivor Candace Smith said. “I also believe that the U.S. Forest Service has learned the hard way on making decisions too quickly or making decisions without all the information needed at hand.”

Candace and Kerri Basinger, featured in a Democrat-Gazette series on the flood last fall, lost their husbands and young children in the flood.

The two women couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

But at the conclusion of the newspaper series in November, Candace said: “We don’t want Albert Pike to close forever. We want it to be opened for thousands of people to enjoy like our families did. We want what should have been done, done now.”

She referred to a review by a U.S. Department of Agriculture team that sharply criticized the Forest Service in a report issued in November.

The review team concluded that a former district ranger disregarded advice from scientists, relied on flawed information and ignored a documented history of flooding when he oversaw construction of Loop D, which is where most of the 20 victims were camping when the river rose.

Loop D was the only part of the federal park that offered RV hookups.

The report also was critical of what it deemed lapses in policy and protocol. It also praised the U.S. Forest Service for its response to the flood.

Officials with the agency responded to the review team in writing, noting that all hazards can’t be eliminated: “All recreational activities on National Forest System lands ... have inherent risks due to the natural setting in which they occur and, in many cases the nature of the activity,” the letter stated.

Flood-hazard signs have since been posted at Albert Pike. There also has been discussion of warning systems that would sound if the river rises.

For the most part, however, the agency has remained mum about the park’s future.

The past weekend’s gorgeous weather brought many families to the closed-off Albert Pike Recreation Area, Janice said. And people have been camping there too, she added, despite the lack of restrooms and waste disposal facilities.

On Sunday, Jesse Lowery replaced toilet paper at the camp store eight times, Janice said.

“People are using the campgrounds whether the Forest Service is open or not,” she said. “As the season wears on, they’re going to need bathrooms and dump stations.”

Forest Service personnel patrol infrequently and they never stay long, Janice added.

Janice once hoped to persuade the agency to help her erect a memorial, but those talks led nowhere, she said.

“We got tired of fooling with jumping through hoops with the Forest Service, so we’re going to use a strip of our property. We have raised enough money to pay for the monument.”

The Lowerys plan to dedicate the site in June.

Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/05/2011

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