Linda Thorne's trailer, at left, was flooded after water from the Meramec River flowed over two levees, flooding the trailer park just north of Arnold, Missouri along Butler Court.
Linda Thorne stands next to her cot in an American Red Cross shelter set up in the First Baptist Church in Arnold, Missouri. Thorne and her family are stuck at the shelter until the floodwater recedes from her trailer located just a couple miles north of the shelter.
An angel ornament given to Linda Thorne by her daughter Tammy sits in a bag of her belongings at a Red Cross Shelter in Arnold, Missouri. The ornament was removed from her Christmas tree before totally evacuating her home due to flooding.
Workers brave floodwaters in an effort to remove several trailers and campers from a property along Marina Road Monday morning as the water level continued to increase near the confluence of the Maries and Osage Rivers.
Snapper Knowlton shields his eyes from the sun while checking the water height on a spray painted sign just west of the levee in the Valmeyer bottoms.
With 2015 producing some of the worst flooding since 1993, Valmeyer bottoms resident Snapper Knowlton and his wife moved non replaceable items like photos and artwork to the second floor of their home just in case things got worse than was expected. The levee keeps most of the flooding out, though, and most of the flooding in the bottoms is the result of seepage from underneath the levee which Knowlton and volunteers from the area keep at bay with sandbagging to equalize seep pressure around the levee.
A vehicle discovered Tuesday morning sits near a turnip field along Loesch Road after flood waters receded from the area. The Missouri State Highway Patrol has confirmed that the driver was able to escape two days ago when he lost control of the truck in high water.
Floodwater covers a closed section of Dutch Bottom Road just west of Arnold, Missouri Thursday Dec. 31, 2015.
Westphalia resident Spencer Bexten peers into a flooded Maries River Monday morning just north of Westphalia on County Route 611. Bexten didn't make it to the bridge over the weekend, but heard that at its peak, the water had made it to the bottom of the bridge.
A towable trailer sits in flood water Wednesday along Second Street in Osage City.
Sandbags from past floods sit on an overgrown tennis court in the Valmeyer bottoms, the bags, rotten and busted open, are scattered throughout the site of the old Valmeyer High School.
Butler Court trailer park resident Derek Knickerbocker surveys the damage to neighboring trailers while standing next to his trailer which came within about a foot of being flooded. Knickerbocker, originally from Brooklyn, said he's been dodging natural disasters his whole life. This time, he said it might have been a 4 a.m. prayer the morning of New Year's Eve that saved him this time; not sleeping all night to stay outside and watch the flooding increase, Knickerbocker, a religious man, repeatedly asked God for safety.
An old baseball sits outside the site of the former Valmeyer High School in the bottoms. Flooding had removed the ball's covering but the stained marks from wet red laces remain on the woven core.
An abandoned farmhouse in the Valmeyer bottoms sits on an island of land with flooding on either side. Many flood-prone properties will operate as satellite locations for farmers to store equipment and run their business from while living elsewhere.
An old cemetery with grave markers dating back to the mid-1800's is perched on a small outcropping on a bluff overlooking Old Valmeyer, which has remained dry throughout any flooding the town has seen.
Snapper Knowlton tends bar at his business, The Corner Pub. Within the last year Knowlton purchased the restaurant, which is the only restaurant and bar in Valmeyer, and named it The Corner Pub in homage to a restaurant that stood in Old Valmeyer before it was destroyed by the flood in 1993.
Houses along Highway 141 in Arnold, Missouri sit in floodwater Thursday evening as rising water levels continue to devastate the area.
A torn flag flies outside a weathered farmhouse in the river bottoms just west of Old Valmeyer. The flag is among a collection of pre-flood artifacts that seem frozen in time, a constant reminder to those still allowed to keep homes in the bottoms of the power of the river.
A neighbor's farm equipment sits on high ground in a field owned by Dennis Schilling along the bluffs in the Valmeyer bottoms. With any serious rainfall expensive farm equipment is put at risk and must be stored away from flooding temporarily.
Seepage causes almost constant flooding in row crop fields near the levee in the Valmeyer bottoms. The fields are flooded so often that most are never harvested and expensive crop insurance covers damages.
Trees reflect over the flooded Mississippi river which buts up against the levee in the Valmeyer bottoms.