PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
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.
Yes. Anytime you choose to camp next to the water on streams, in mountain valleys, and on flood control reservoirs, you must be closely attuned to weather and flood management conditions. In the middle of the country, it is not unusual for storms to dump 4-10 inches of rain over the watershed in a few hours, and that comes downstream in a rush.
Most of the year in these parks, I choose a "high ground" site, rather than a waterfront site, so that I don't have to do a panic mode pack up and move. There are other reasons to pick a site away from the water, like mayfly swarms. There are times when the waterfront is great, there are times when it is the least desirable place to be camped. But the OP asked "where" rather than "is this a good idea."
