Patty Loew:
This is the scenic overlook to Gays Mills in Crawford County today. An idyllic village nestled in the valley. This is the same view last June after the Kickapoo River spilled over its banks and annexed 90% of the village. The flood water is gone but as Frederica Freyberg shows you, the fight goes on in Gays Mills.

Frederica Freyberg:
As a life long resident of Gays Mills Lorraine Fortney has been fighting floods since Harry Truman was president.

Lorraine Fortney:
I've lived here 62 years and I've seen many floods.

Frederica Freyberg:
Then came the flash floods of 2007.

Lorraine Fortney:
We had to sit on the doorstep and ease ourselves into the water because all the steps were gone. It was four feet deep out here.

Frederica Freyberg:
As in the wake of previous floods, they forged on and started again.

Lorraine Fortney:
I think it was two months before we could shut the doors all the way.

Frederica Freyberg:
Less than a year later, a second wave of flooding, worse than the first.

Lorraine Fortney:
The water was right up here coming out the windows. I mean, you just thought, why am I going through this? There has to be a better way. Somebody bigger is trying to tell me something and I haven't been listening. So I got to do it right this time.

Frederica Freyberg:
Getting it right this time starts with the three Cs of flood recovery.

Ritch Stevenson:
A lot of cooperation, collaboration, continued commitment from the village board.

Frederica Freyberg:
Ritch Stevenson was raised on the river. He is a local business owner and a member of Gays Mills’ long range planning team. When he takes a look down main street...

Ritch Stevenson:
I see a quaint little community struggling to survive and every time that river floods it takes a little piece of it with us down the river.            

Frederica Freyberg:
Nearly 100 homes had flood damage and dozens of people had their hopes washed right out of town.
Ritch Stevenson:
I also see opportunity. I see a lot of businesses that are tough, you know, they're flood hardened and know how to survive.

Frederica Freyberg:
Stevenson thinks survival means a new vision for the village. Settled around 1848 in the Kickapoo River valley. It is a far cry from this picture taken of main street in 1892. More than 100 years later, the plan is more like this, for parks and bike trails, plus a buyout for homes and businesses. Today the river is tame but there is an undercurrent from some townsfolk. They're paddling against the tide to move Gays Mills up and out of the flood plain.

Ritch Stevenson:
There is definitely some differences. Some of the old timers that have lived here and slugged it out with the river are more flood-hardened and okay with cleaning up and doing it again.

Frederica Freyberg:
Main street puts on a good face. Waterlogged but still boasting the quaint shops that make this village a destination. The owner of this greenhouse says he has no intention of moving.

Joe Brandt:
I'm up higher here. I was required by law when I built this place 25 years ago to build it three feet above the flood plain. I'm so glad I did. I didn't have water in my store.

Frederica Freyberg:
No water but plenty of empathy. Brandt sees why some want to move the town to higher ground to this piece of land north of town.                    

Joe Brandt:
I totally understand, if I lived down by the river and had three or four feet of water in my house twice I would be scratching my head wondering what I'm doing, too.

Frederica Freyberg:
A year later Lorraine and her husband, Ron are still scratching their heads and this is why.

Lorraine Fortney:
Be careful on these steps. Steps, pallets. So much of this we just left. So I got a mess in here.

Frederica Freyberg:
The water is gone but they are still drowning in its aftermath.

Lorraine Fortney:
There is just no excuse to go on that way. We cleaned it with bleach. We washed it out, but yet my allergies were so bad I just couldn't deal with it. Terrible headaches all the time.

Frederica Freyberg:
The headache of losing your home, the headache of not knowing what's next. And the headache of watching a community crumble.

Lorraine Fortney:
Then I finally, after going to meetings, I thought the Lord don't intend us to live this way. There is a better way. He gave us common sense. Let's deal with it. Let's figure it out. And that's what we're doing.            

Frederica Freyberg:
Then there are the other figures to figure out.

Lorraine Fortney:
If we have to move back because the funding isn't there, we'll do the best we can but it is not what I want to do. But this we owned free and clear. And at our age it's hard to start paying payments when you're supposedly retired. But until we know the figures, we don't know what we'll do.        

Frederica Freyberg:
Lorraine has figured out one thing about this waterlogged house built in 1895. She is too water weary to clean it up again.

Lorraine Fortney:
I'm not willing to live my whole life doing this.

Frederica Freyberg:
Because the flood waters will return, sure as clockwork.

Lorraine Fortney:
When the floods hit, you knew what was in Viola we would have probably in 24 hours. When it was in Soldier's Grove you knew you would have it in 12 hours.

Frederica Freyberg:
That clock is ticking. Forecasting future floods.

Lorraine Fortney:
It will happen again. You know, that's the whole thing. It is never an if, it's when.

Frederica Freyberg:
It's time. It's really all about time.

Lorraine Fortney:
It's just time to go, that's all there is to it.

Patty Loew:
Next week on "In Wisconsin"'s continuing coverage on the flood recovery efforts, we travel to the town of Spring Green.

Woman:
Life for us was awful. I was pregnant and expecting our daughter.

Patty Loew:
Many families here are still waiting for assistance money so they can move on. Their stories next week.