2008 Woodie Awards
Outing Club braves floods during break
By: Matt Day, News Editor
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News
A steady rain was falling as a group of Macalester students bedded down in tents on the banks of the Buffalo River in Arkansas on March 18. When they looked out the next morning, the downpour had turned into a flood.
The riverbank where they were camped was now an island surrounded by a rapidly rising river. Their escape route, a steep mountainside across a small stream, was no longer an option. The stream had deepened and was now linked with the main channel of the river.
As the rain continued to fall their only option was to put canoes into the water and ride out the worst flood to hit the river since 1913.
The Outing Club's Spring Break canoe trip had begun three days earlier, under much less life-threatening circumstances. Eight Macalester students, led by Frederik Flagstad '08 and Justin Lee '08, drove nearly 700 miles to Arkansas in a college-owned van the first Saturday of spring break.
Flagstad and Lee, who had canoed the Buffalo River Spring Break 2007 with the Outing Club, had wanted to go to Texas this year. When planning fell through, the familiar Arkansas river became the obvious option.
The plan was for the group to canoe at a leisurely pace for three days, camping along the river as they went. They would meet Tuesday afternoon with their outfitter, who would take them back to their van.
The group was to spend their last three days hiking.
The forecast called for rain, but only enough to increase the river level by one inch, Lee said.
"We were on the river last year," Lee said. "We knew it could rise. But we didn't know it could rise that much."
The Buffalo River, which runs for 135 miles through the limestone bluffs of the Ozark Mountains, is one of the few remaining rivers in the continental United States without a dam.
The group put their four canoes into the water at Pruitt Landing Sunday and paddled without incident, stopping in the early evening to camp.
Monday went less smoothly. The river level, already high because of unusual runoff from snowmelt, left low trees and shrubs hanging over the banks of the river. Those banks and the rocks in the channel proved difficult to navigate for one canoe's crew.
The riverbank where they were camped was now an island surrounded by a rapidly rising river. Their escape route, a steep mountainside across a small stream, was no longer an option. The stream had deepened and was now linked with the main channel of the river.
As the rain continued to fall their only option was to put canoes into the water and ride out the worst flood to hit the river since 1913.
The Outing Club's Spring Break canoe trip had begun three days earlier, under much less life-threatening circumstances. Eight Macalester students, led by Frederik Flagstad '08 and Justin Lee '08, drove nearly 700 miles to Arkansas in a college-owned van the first Saturday of spring break.
Flagstad and Lee, who had canoed the Buffalo River Spring Break 2007 with the Outing Club, had wanted to go to Texas this year. When planning fell through, the familiar Arkansas river became the obvious option.
The plan was for the group to canoe at a leisurely pace for three days, camping along the river as they went. They would meet Tuesday afternoon with their outfitter, who would take them back to their van.
The group was to spend their last three days hiking.
The forecast called for rain, but only enough to increase the river level by one inch, Lee said.
"We were on the river last year," Lee said. "We knew it could rise. But we didn't know it could rise that much."
The Buffalo River, which runs for 135 miles through the limestone bluffs of the Ozark Mountains, is one of the few remaining rivers in the continental United States without a dam.
The group put their four canoes into the water at Pruitt Landing Sunday and paddled without incident, stopping in the early evening to camp.
Monday went less smoothly. The river level, already high because of unusual runoff from snowmelt, left low trees and shrubs hanging over the banks of the river. Those banks and the rocks in the channel proved difficult to navigate for one canoe's crew.
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