By the time the river reached them on July 13, Nick and Crystal Goedereis had removed everything possible -- livestock, heirlooms, even portable buildings -- from their 150-acre homestead along the rich banks of the Mississippi near Quincy, Illinois. But they still defiantly spent their last night in sleeping bags on the bare living room floor. "We didn't want to leave," says Crystal. "It was our home."
Repeatedly over the 160 years since Nick's family first tilled the land, the river had reached out to destroy the crops. But each time, the family had returned to replant and prosper. This was...
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