LANGLEY, Ark (Reuters) – Search crews recovered 18 bodies and were hunting for others yesterday along a 10-mile stretch of river after a flash flood swept through a popular Arkansas campground on Friday, rescue officials said.
Officials said three people known to have been at the camp along the Little Missouri River in western Arkansas remain missing, and an additional 20 that might have been there are still unaccounted for.
Governor Mike Beebe said he had turned down additional federal help offered by President Barack Obama by phone and that state and local rescue teams, as well as US Forest Service employees, would continue to hunt for the missing.
“If we need additional assets I’m not a bit bashful to ask him for it, but at this juncture I didn’t,” Beebe told reporters at a media conference in Little Rock.
