Current River campers caught by surprise, lose vehicles as river rises 5 feet in one hour

About 50 campers were affected early July 4 when an isolated thunderstorm caused the Current River to rise 5 feet in one hour.

While no one was injured, a pop-up camper, a pickup truck and several RVs and boats were caught in the high waters.

The flooding occurred about 25 to 30 miles north of Van Buren, Missouri, in the areas of Martin Bluff, Goose Bay, Powder Mill and Blue Spring, said Jack’s Fork district ranger Chris Figge, who is with the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

An estimated 2 inches of rain fell quickly, filling Current River tributaries between 5 to 6 a.m., Figge said.

“Due to the holiday weekend, we had a sizable number of visitors,” Figge said. “Campers heard the heavy rain and woke up to the water rising.”

Visitors evacuated without assistance from emergency responders, Figge said, but some had to leave behind their vehicles and campers. Most of the items remained close to their original campsites during the flooding, but at least three boats floated away in the Powder Mill area, he said.

Other vehicles also were affected at Blue Spring on Missouri Department of Conservation land, according visitors and the park service.

Matt and Meagan Kile of Winona, Missouri, were camping at Blue Spring when the water rose. When visitors tried to drive their RVs out of the camping area, they found the gravel was too loose, Meagan Kile said. They removed everything they could before evacuating but had to leave behind the vehicles, she said.

National Park Service rangers and the Missouri State Highway Patrol water patrol went to the area with boats and warned people at campsites at Waymeyer and Logyard, south of the flooding, Figge said.

Park rangers watched the weather before the storm, but the quick change in river levels still caught people by surprise, Figge said.

The Current River at Powder Mill went from a little more than 3.5 feet to more than 8.5 feet in an hour. The middle and lower Current River typically do not flood so violently, said Figge, who has worked that area of the park for 13 years and lived in the Powder Mill area before that.

“As far as flash floods go, this is pretty significant, just that it came up so quickly in one isolated spot,” he said.

The Current River at Van Buren rose a little under 4 feet between 4 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. It crested at 7.36 feet, well under the 10-foot flood-action stage. At Doniphan, the river also rose less than 4 feet between noon Monday and 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. It crested at 4.66 feet, also under the 10-foot flood-action stage.