Total Missing in Ark. Flood Cut to 3

Crews got to work today looking for bodies in the many piles of debris that collected after a flash flood swept through a popular Arkansas campground, as police drastically cut their estimate of missing campers to just three. Cops haven't made contact with some of the nearly two dozen people who hadn't been accounted for yesterday, who they now believe are camping elsewhere. "Typically when people go on vacation, they want to turn those cell phones off," says a spokesman. "That's the reason they're on vacation."

The number of missing has varied wildly since the floods hit, partly because authorities struggled to figure out exactly who was in the campground. Hopes of finding anyone else alive wilted in the weekend's oppressive heat. Anguished relatives awaiting word of loved ones grew frustrated, knowing that at some point the search mission would become one of recovery. "They're just devastated," says a local pastor. "They're beginning to fear the worst."
(More flash floods stories.)