Biographical Info
Age: 16
Additional Info: Christopher Bodkins had served with the Williford Volunteer Fire Department for three years. He is survived by his fiancée and 2-month-old son.
Cause of Death: Bodkins was swept away and killed by a flood during a rescue mission.
Date of Incident: September 23, 2006
Volunteer junior firefighter killed in Arkansas flooding
By Kenneth Heard and Andy Davis
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
WILLIFORD, Ark.— Christopher Bodkins, 16, loved being a volunteer junior fireman and was on a rescue mission Saturday morning when the raging waters of Martin Creek swept him away to his death.
Family members found Bodkins’ body along the creek bank at 11 p.m. Saturday when the waters receded, about 35 yards from where a vehicle driven by his stepfather, Bill Cossey, the assistant fire chief of the Williford Volunteer Fire Department, was washed off a lowwater bridge.
Rescue workers called off their search at dark Sunday for a man presumed missing from River Bend Park, a campsite for camper trailers and recreational vehicles about two miles north of Hardy along the Spring River. A friend told authorities that Jackie Richardson, a former Trumann fireman who lived in one of the park’s trailers, was last seen clutching a tree branch when 12 feet of water cascaded from the Spring River into the park.
“We’ve narrowed down the search [for Richardson],” Hardy Fire Chief Lonnie Phelps said. “We hope we find him soon.” The search is to resume today.
Bodkins, a ninth-grade student from Williford, was responding Saturday night to a 911 call on Martin Creek Road about eight miles east of Hardy with his stepfather and Cliff King, a 21-year-old friend who was spending the night at Cossey’s Williford home. A woman and three children were trapped by rising waters in a cabin along Martin Creek Road north of U.S. 63.
Heavy rainfall accompanying a series of storms that swept through Sharp County and northern Arkansas on Friday evening and Saturday morning had forced creeks and rivers out of their banks.
Cossey, who was driving a Toyota Corolla, said Sunday that he topped a hill on Martin Creek Road about one-half mile north of U.S. 63 and then descended into a valley where there was a lowwater crossing. Authorities incorrectly said Saturday that Bodkins was driving the car.
“The water hit us and we started sliding,” Cossey said.
King, who sat in the back seat of Cossey’s vehicle, escaped through the back door.
“I told Christopher to get out,” Cossey said. “The last thing I saw before my head went underwater was Christopher crawling out of the window.” Bill Cossey escaped through the driver’s side window, but was swept downstream.
“I can’t swim a lick,” he said. “I busted around trying to hold onto something.” He grabbed tree limbs, but the roiling waters snapped them, sending him farther downstream.
King grabbed a flashlight and ran along the creek bank, shining the light on Cossey. He spent nearly two hours in the water, yelling questions about his stepson.
“I was trying to hold on, but I kept asking about Christopher,” he said. “The light would flash up and down at times and I thought they were saying he was OK. I’d ask again and the light didn’t move.” Cossey was rescued by boat, taken to an ambulance where he warmed up and then began searching for Bodkins.
Saturday evening, searchers found Cossey’s car about 200 yards from the crossing.
Officials called off the search at 7 p.m., Saturday because of darkness. But residents of the small eastern Sharp County town of 63 weren’t deterred by nightfall.
“The locals kept on searching,” said Dudley Louvier, acting mayor of Williford. “They got their flashlights and kept on searching.” An uncle found Bodkins’ body about 35 yards downstream from Cossey’s car at 11 p.m. Saturday, Louvier said.
Rescuers from 10 counties, including Shelby County, Tenn., assisted in the search for both Bodkins and Richardson.
“We appreciate everybody showing up,” Cossey said. “We didn’t get to thank them.” Bodkins was remembered as being enthusiastic about his role as a junior volunteer firefighter. He didn’t battle fires, but gladly rolled up fire hoses and helped with other chores whenever asked, Cossey said.
“He was always the first in the car,” Cossey said. “The pager would go off, calling us out, and he’d be, `C’mon, let’s go.’” Visitation will be held for Bodkins from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Williford High School gymnasium. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Tri-County Cherokee Chapel in Hardy, with burial to follow at the Cossey Family Cemetery in Williford.
Crews used heavy equipment Sunday afternoon to lift the tossed camper trailers at River Bend Park and search underneath for victims, Phelps said.
Additional helpers were expected to arrive at the park late Sunday afternoon and would search through the evening, he said.
“We’re still out there,” Phelps said. “We’re playing it by ear when to call it off tonight. We’ve got people who want to help find him [Richardson].” Teams from 10 counties combed the flooded park Saturday, knocking on the sides of overturned mobile homes to locate anyone who might be injured. They resumed their search at 7 a.m. Sunday, working further east along the Spring River.
Four trailers were swept into the river Saturday morning, authorities said. Although several of the park’s residents heeded the early warnings that the river would flood, rescue teams had to save 17 people who were trapped by the raging waters, Phelps said.
The Spring River, which begins 16 miles north of Hardy at Mammoth Spring and empties into the Black River near Black Rock, is a favorite vacation spot for fishermen and canoe enthusiasts. On Friday evening, the river measured 3.6 feet, according to the National Weather Service. By 3 a.m., the river had risen to over 26 feet.
“It’s rare for it to come up as quick as it did,” Phelps said.
Clay, Fulton, Randolph and Sharp counties declared disasters Saturday, but had not yet requested state assistance on Sunday, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said. Fulton County Judge Charles Willett estimated that 70 percent of his county’s 2,000 miles of dirt roads had been washed away in the downpour.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service’s North Little Rock office traveled to northern Arkansas on Sunday and confirmed that at least three tornadoes had touched down Friday evening.
One twister, with winds of about 110 mph, touched down southeast of Franklin in Izard County and traveled east for eight miles, into Sharp County south of Ash Flat, meteorologist Joe Robinson said. It destroyed two mobile homes, damaged a dozen houses and knocked down hundreds of trees, he said.
Another tornado, with winds of about 75 mph, knocked down several dozen trees in northeast Izard County. The meteorologists were also inspecting damage from a tornado that knocked a tree into a house in Fulton County north of Hardy.
The Spring and Eleven Point rivers in northern Arkansas had retreated to normal levels Sunday, but the swollen White and Black rivers are expected to damage soybean, cotton and rice fields across eastern Arkansas over the next few days, said Steve Bays, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
The Black River was about 10 feet above its flood stage of 14 feet at Black Rock in Lawrence County on Sunday, Bays said. In Pocahontas in Randolph County, the river is expected to crest at more than 4 feet above its 17-foot flood stage on Tuesday. Later this week, water from the river is expected to submerge Arkansas 37 in Independence County, he said.
The White River is expected to rise more than two feet above its flood stage of 26 feet at Augusta in Woodruff County on Thursday or Friday. The Cache River is also expected to flood, rising to 2 feet above flood stage at Patterson in Woodruff County on Friday.
The St. Francis River in far northeastern Arkansas was also above flood stage Sunday, but it was expected to begin falling by this evening, said Z.E. Ingram, a spokesman in the Weather Service’s Memphis office.
The Right Hand Chute of Little River in Poinsett County will rise above flood stage today and crest Wednesday evening, he said.
The stormy weather that plagued Arkansas is blamed for 12 deaths in the Midwest and South, according to The Associated Press. Although most of the bad weather subsided by Sunday, some residents remained shut out of their homes due to high waters.
Flood warnings remained in effect for parts of Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri.
The death toll in Kentucky reached eight. In southern Illinois, authorities said lightning was the apparent cause of a weekend house fire that killed two women, ages 89 and 73, before dawn Saturday.
The National Weather Service reported that areas of Kentucky received at least 5 inches of rain, with isolated regions receiving close to 10 inches. Over 24 hours, parts of northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri received more than 10 inches of rain, the weather service reported.