'We Are the Lucky Ones'

The flood waters have yet to recede or the damage to be totaled, but Iowans are already exchanging tales of how they coped, and expressing gratitude for the help and support of their neighbors. Says one, whose business is still under water, "Iowa is such a great place to live." Newsweek's Jamie Reno spoke with five survivors. Excerpts:

MARK EGLY--DES MOINES
The levee in North Des Moines that burst early Saturday morning is within eyeshot of the Des Moines Driving Range owned by Mark Egly, 52, a golf professional who purchased the facility six years ago. He says that when he bought the property, he was told that it would never flood the way it did back in 1993, when Iowa was hit by the most devastating flood of modern times --until this one.

"I was told by every agency you can think of that it wouldn't flood here again because of the levees, the new improvements at Saylorville Dam," Egly tells Newsweek. "The city of Des Moines put a pumping station next to me to supply Ankeny and Saylorville with water. They said I was in great shape; that this place would never flood. The building next to me is the Des Moines Waterworks. Their management, and Polk County Supervisors, all said it would never flood here again. The sad thing is they started developing in this area, within 600 yards of my place. I just saw a real estate sign halfway underwater. Why develop there? It's horrible to think that developers will continue to develop in harm's way. For the last five days, roads have been closed in and out of this area, and they will be closed another five days, I'm sure. The media can't even get in here, neither can the police. But I can because of my Hummer. Some of those people will not be able to send pics to FEMA, but I've been taking pictures of the entire area, I'm sort of the historian here.

"We were among the very first businesses to get hit. We first got hit at 8:30 on Tuesday, I was teaching golf classes when the sheriff's dept. person said that at 10:00 they will be letting water out of the dam and that I had to evacuate now. I was able in an hour to get a lot of stuff off the ground at my business, and get my employees out for their safety. We were building a new green, it's destroyed now. We moved a John Deere, but the other John Deere and other equipment are now floating around at the end of the range. I don't know yet if they are destroyed."

"I was able to drive on roads no one else could drive in. On Thursday, I went through the deep water and back into my driving range, there was water inside the building. I was able to sandbag around the building; having the Hummer, I could go in backwards so when it came time to leave, I could plow out. When that did happen, I had water coming over the Hummer's hood. I had to take a chance. But I was careful; it was an educated risk. I have a nice home and do well, but if I didn't save my business, financially it would have been devastating beyond all belief. I had another person in another truck watching me. Our parking lot was the deepest part -- I'm 6' 3" and the water was up to my waist -- that's when I decided to get Hummer back up to building. I did it five times with five loads of sand. I refused to let anyone else do that sandbagging, though, for safety reasons.

"I live two miles north of the driving range, in Ankeny, and we're safe and sound up here. My driving range is still underwater, Only thing I know for sure is that I have five target greens and two putting greens, they are built up, the tips of the greens are still above water for now. I still see some of the equipment sitting on green, that green is ruined, but the green saved my equipment.