VAN BUREN, Mo. -- Mark and Donna Wilcoxon moved their furniture onto concrete blocks when the Current River first started creeping toward their A-frame home at the end of April 2017.
Then they moved the furniture to the second floor.
Finally Mark returned April 30 with friends and family, using jet boats to reach the second floor balcony in an attempt to salvage whatever belongings they could reach.
"We were in it until it was neck deep downstairs, taking pictures off the wall," Mark, 51, recalled recently, from the shop building that has since been converted into a one-room living, dining and sleeping space.
Water had never been inside the house he built with his grandfather in the late 1970s, and the Wilcoxons never imagined it could be more than even a few inches deep on the first floor.
It's completely gone now.
The couple carried flood insurance, but it was only enough to cover the most minor damage. And because of the flood insurance, they say, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down their application for aid.
Nearly a year after a flood that broke century-old records, the Wilcoxons are among a large number of Van Buren residents still displaced, and still picking up the pieces.
"It will never be normal," said Donna, who raised two children in the home they lost.
The Wilcoxons recently poured the foundation for a new home, which will sit 10 feet higher than the river reached in 2017.
They've taken out a new bank loan, and pushed back the date they expected to have their property paid for by decades.
Their neighbor, Sharrel Jones, had water nearly 8 feet deep inside her home, and is still making repairs.
Jones has been like a grandmother to the Wilcoxons' two children, and it was Mark who helped her evacuate when she would have stayed.
"It just feels like the house fights you," Jones said, of her efforts to replace flooring, fixtures and other items.
Jones did receive money from FEMA, but says it still was far short of what was needed. Her family has helped narrow the gap by providing labor when they can, but live more than 80 miles away.
The maximum FEMA payment to homeowners was less than $34,000, and few people received that much, according to members of the Carter County Long Term Recovery Committee. The committee has helped manage budgets and organize volunteers and donated supplies.
About 200 homes were damaged or destroyed during a flood that lasted less than 24 hours.
This is the second of two stories concerning the ongoing recovery effort.
Carter County Presiding Commissioner Don Black says he knows people are frustrated.
The county's courthouse and justice center both had extensive damage.
Architectural firms are working on drawings for the interior of the existing courthouse and for a new justice center, according to Black, who hopes to have more information about both soon.
"For us, it's not near fast enough. It's not feeling like it's going like it should," Black said of the recovery efforts.
But other communities that have suffered devastating natural disasters say it does take a long time, he said, including officials from Joplin, Mo.
Van Buren is also working now with an Iowa community of 1,600 people that saw extreme flooding 10 years ago, Black said.
"They feel like we're ahead, that it normally takes longer," he said.
Good things going on in Carter County now include construction of a larger Dollar General and a larger grocery store, Black said. First Midwest Bank is going to have a new building and a new cafe is coming, as well as a Godfather's Pizza, he said.
"Winter was hard on us, but I think this spring will bring forth a lot of excitement," he said. "The river's beautiful and we're ready for people to get out on it and have a good vacation and spend their money."
The river has kept both the Wilcoxons and Jones at their properties, despite their struggles.
"It's just part of me," said Jones. "If I can't see the river, I'm not home."
Donna misses the sound of the river, now higher on the hills that surround their property. The couple has cleared trees so they can still see it.
She picked through the debris in their valley, salvaging some belongings from their destroyed home.
That included some Christmas ornaments, like the one from her son's cross country days at Van Buren High School.
Jones lost many of her family photos, but her children are helping replace what they can.
The Wilcoxons hope to be in their new house by summer, although Donna admits its still hard to get excited about.
Every day they remember something that was lost, like her own childhood photos.
But they've always liked living by the river.
"When we were living over the hill for a couple of months, Donna said she definitely wanted to move back," Mark said, as the sun set over a gravel bar on the Current River, within sight of a pair of chairs set up outside their temporary home. "We don't have the view that we had, but its still not too bad."