Officials said three people known to have been at the camp along the Little Missouri River in western Arkansas remain missing, and an additional 20 that might have been there are still unaccounted for.

Governor Mike Beebe said he had turned down additional federal help offered by President Barack Obama by phone and that state and local rescue teams, as well as U.S. Forest Service employees, would continue to hunt for the missing.

"If we need additional assets I'm not a bit bashful to ask him for it, but at this juncture I didn't," Beebe told reporters at a media conference in Little Rock.

A wall of water, triggered by heavy rains that swelled the river to 20 feet, caught victims asleep in their tents at the Albert Pike campground in the Ouachita Mountains west of Little Rock.

Among the 15 identified victims were several members of the same families, including six children, according to a list provided by Arkansas' State Emergency Operations Center.