Two years ago, Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Ark. rose almost 12 feet between 10 pm and 3 am. A lot of rigs were flooded as the rangers were trying to wake people up and get them to move.
One of our favorite CG growing up - Albert Pike in the Ouachita National Forest - had a flash flood in 2010 - from a small river to a raging flood in just a couple hours. The river rose over 8 feet per hour - topping out over 20 feet above normal. 20 people died, some in their camping rigs in a commercial CG next to the NF CG. Over 40 TT/Class C and Class A units were swept down the river and destroyed. Once the river came out of its banks - it was impossible to try to save the RV. The roads out would have required traveling through deeper, swift water, and since the water was rising 2 feet every 15 minutes, getting hooked up would put your life in danger.
They were only able to herd the campers up the hill on a road or on trails to save their lives.
There was relatively little rain at the CG - the river upstream got six or seven inches of rain per hour.
Any time you camp next to water, the possibility of a flood exists, and it is not always easy to know what is happening 20-30 miles away where the rainfall which causes a flood occurs.
