Woman files lawsuit over Albert Pike deaths
Amanda Willis lost her daughter, mother in 2010 flood in Arkansas
A Texarkana woman who lost her only daughter and her mother in the 2010 flood at Albert Pike campgrounds has filed a lawsuit in federal court.
Amanda Willis’ daughter, Kylee Sullivan, had just finished the first grade when she, Willis, Kylee’s best friend Gayble Moss and Willis’ husband, Clark, traveled June 9, 2010, to Ouachita National Forest in Montgomery County, Ark., for a weekend of fun, according to a lawsuit filed on Willis’ behalf by Texarkana lawyer David Carter. The group intended to camp at Loop D at Albert Pike Recreation Center along the Little Missouri River. The next day, Willis’ mother and father, Gerald and Julie Freeman, joined the group.
Loop D was filled with other campers, so Willis’ group made camp a short distance upstream from Loop D along Park Road 512.
In the early hours of June 11, 2010, the river rose from a little more than 3 feet to more than 23 feet in a few hours.
Kylee, Gayble and Julie Freeman had taken refuge from the wet weather in a sport utility vehicle, which was swept away by the roiling floodwaters. All three perished. Willis was in a different vehicle.
The suit alleges that the three deaths are the result of the “willful and wanton negligence of the U.S. Forest Service.”
The suit seeks damages for wrongful death.
A report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the flood found a bevy of problems with the Forest Service’s management of Albe rt Pike campgrounds.
In particular, the report notes that the Forest Service ranger in charge of developing campsites in the area when Loop D was built ignored warnings from a Forest Service soil scientist that the area was in a flood plain and should be designated as primitive camping only, with minimal disturbance to the soil and terrain by the Forest Service.
However, Loop D was designed with electrical hookups for recreational vehicles, paved roads, parking lots and picnic tables.
The flood that tore through the campground washed away cars and recreational vehicles and lifted large chunks of asphalt and equipment.
The USDA report also points to a lack of signage warning of flooding dangers.
Problems with employee and volunteer training, nonfunctioning warning or communication systems and a lack of contingency planning by the Forest Service also are faulted.
The report also noted the June 2010 flood was unlike any other on record, though flooding had been documented in the area for years.
Carter filed Willis’ suit Thursday in the Texarkana division of the Western District of Arkansas, bringing to seven the number of suits concerning the flood assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey.
The government has filed answers in some of the other cases, claiming the suits are barred by sovereign immunity and the Arkansas Recreational Use statute.
The government has not filed a response to Willis’ complaint.