More than 40 people were unaccounted for after the Caddo and Little Missouri rivers rose quickly overnight — at times faster than 8 feet per hour, said Gary Fox, a retired emergency medical technician coordinating with families to determine who was dead and who had yet to be found.

“This is not a one- or two-day thing,” Fox said outside a command post near Langley, along the Little Missouri.

“This is going to be a week or two- or three-week recovery.” The Albert Pike Recreation Area, a 54-unit campground in the Ouachita National Forest, was packed with vacationing families, many of them from Louisiana and Texas, Fox said.

Two-dozen people were hospitalized and an additional 60 were rescued from the steep Ouachita Mountains valley.

It was unlikely that many of the missing could have left the area on their own after the flood. Fox said nearly everyone lost their vehicles when the floodwaters swept through the recreation area.

Marc and Stacy McNeil of Marshall, Texas, survived the flooding by pulling their pickup truck between two trees and standing in the bed in waist-deep water.

“It was just like a boat tied to a tree,” Marc McNeil said, describing how the truck bobbed up and down.

They were on their first night of camping with a group of seven, staying in tents. The rain kept falling and the water kept rising throughout the night, at one point topping the toolbox in the back of the truck.

“We huddled together, and prayed like we'd never prayed before.” Stacy McNeil said.

By dawn the rain stopped, the water receded and they were able to walk to safety.

Near the command post outside the Langley post office, helicopters landed behind a general store and a triage unit was set up at a volunteer fire department.