LITTLE ROCK — Congressman Mike Ross says the U.S. Forest Service has been frustratingly slow in its efforts to clean up the Albert Pike Recreation Area and decide what parts to reopen after 20 campers died in a flood there last summer.
“I thought it would be done by now,” the Democrat from Prescott said Tuesday. “I’m just trying to get the Forest Service off high center. It almost seems like they have moved on to other projects and have forgotten about this, and this is something that no one ever needs to forget about.”
Comments from Ross about getting the campground “reopened” in the past few days have triggered anger among the families of the 12 adults and eight children who died when the Little Missouri River overran its banks at the federal campground during the predawn hours of June 11.
Some survivors and friends have since contacted Ross’ office. Among them was Candace Smith, who lost her husband Anthony; 5-year-old son, Joey; and 2-year-old daughter, Katelynn, in the flood. Smith was swept away by the raging river but survived.
“I have vowed to make sure that Albert Pike is made safe and I will NOT sit back and let people like this try to rush the process,” Smith wrote in an email to Ross’ office Monday.
“Rushing the ‘process’ is what took the lives of 20 special people. It makes me wonder..What is he really fighting for? Money??.”
Ross told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday that the families only saw a small parts of what he said about Albert Pike.
“I’m not wanting them to reopen any campground that they do not deem safe,” he explained.
“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.”
Now he is asking Forest Service officials to meet with him at his office “to get them moving forward with a plan that will be safe.”
Tracy Farley, a spokesman for the Forest Service, did not return an e-mail or telephone message seeking comment Tuesday.
Ross said his office has received complaints from people who live or camp near the federal recreation area in southwest Arkansas saying that yellow crime-scene tape surrounds Loops C and D of the campground.
“These families are still hurting,” he said. “They need more than yellow crime-scene tape to keep people out.”
But Smith said she doesn’t think the Forest Service is taking too long to decide what to do with the four camping loops at Albert Pike, a place she and her family visited every summer for years along with her best friend, Kerri Basinger.
Basinger lost her husband and two children in the flood.
“A decision like this takes time. I believe rushing the process will only make matters worse,” Smith said Tuesday. “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.”
Most of the people who died were camping in recreational vehicles in Loop D, which was built in a flood plain despite warnings against it and a history of flooding at that location, according to are view by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
None of the campers there on June 11 knew that the district ranger who OK’d plans for RV spots at the location had been warned not to allow recreational vehicles to camp there overnight, according to the review. The ranger has since retired.
Smith said she believes that Loop D should never be reopened. Nor, she said, should Loop C, which was closed at the time of the flood for renovations that included more RV spots. Forest Service officials and others believe there likely would have been more fatalities if Loop C had been open when the flood happened.
Loops A and B, which offered only primitive camping sites, should be reopened for overnight use only after “all safety measures are put in place,” Smith said, referencing a need for flood warning signs, evacuation plans and a flood warning system.
“No one deserves to be put in my shoes,” she said. “I may step on a lot of toes on my journey, but I am only fighting for the lives of thousands of people that will continue to enjoy Camp Albert Pike.”
Ross said he’s not advocating for Loop D to be reopened. He just wants the Forest Service to make a decision and then adjust the park accordingly. And if the Forest Service decides to permit overnight camping again, he said, some sort of flood warning system should be installed.
In the months after the flood, he said, Forest Service officials met with him and others weekly to update their progress at Albert Pike. Those meetings eventually fell off.
“We assumed a lot more had been done,” Ross said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/19/2011