Authorities haven’t been able to contact some of the nearly two dozen people who hadn’t been accounted for Saturday, but they don’t believe those people were in the Albert Pike Recreation Area, the section of the Ouachita National Forest hardest hit by flooding, State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said. He said those people are likely camping elsewhere in Arkansas, and that’s why they haven’t been reachable.

Rescue crew has searched most of the 30-km area down river of the campground, so they focused their search effort Sunday on clearing the many tangled piles of debris that collected along Little Missouri River.

Hopes of finding anyone else alive wilted in the oppressive heat and humidity that blanketed the area all weekend. Anxious survivors and relatives of the missing who have taken refuge in a church in nearby Lodi were taken on a tour of the campground on Sunday.