Long time Gays Mills resident Kim Heisz just finished putting in new carpeting in January in the aftermath of last fall's major flooding in her village, when she was again routed out of her downtown home by advancing torrents of water.
She remembered the flooding of August 2007 like it was yesterday. "Horrific," she told 27 News.
Heisz is one of 134 people who have been evacuated from their homes after weekend rain swelled the nearby Kickapoo River and deluged this quaint, Crawford County community known for its apple orchards, but building a reputation as the most flood-prone area of the state.
Authorities told 27 News most of the evacuees also experienced dislocation when flooding hit the village with a population of 625 last August.
Flood waters have been receding, but not enough to allow people into their homes to recover anything but essentials such as medication, or to rescue a pet. Almost all of those efforts have been by boat.
Village board member Pat Brockway knows the equivalent of a second, one hundred year flood in Gays Mills in ten months will renew talk of whether it's viable to continue to have people living in the low lying valley hamlet.
"I'm not going to give up on this town," Brockway told 27 News.
"If we have to move our town, it will be lost. If we move it to higher ground, it won't have the same sense of town."
It remains to be seen if the majority of the flood victims are willing to clean-up, and reinforce properties after this second major flooding.
Brockway said only three of nineteen homes slated to have their foundations raised to prevent future flooding damage have had the work completed since last fall's deluge.
Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be in Gays Mills Thursday to assess the most recent damage.
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