Its roots are in the railroad, dating back to the late 1800s. But these days sidewalks are lined with soybeans where the village of Valmeyer, Ill. once stood. "Where we're standing right now there were residential areas on both sides of the street," said former Mayor Dennis Knobloch. Roughly 350 homes and businesses once made up the town of 900. Four miles from the typical path of the Mississippi, almost every building in Valmeyer was damaged or even destroyed in the Flood of 1993. In some spots, the water in the town was 14 feet deep. Knobloch recalls that for months people could not reach their homes, except by boat. Before the flood water wiped most of the town off the map, just a few miles to the north it created an unforgettable scene of destruction that played out live on TV. When the Columbia, Ill. levee broke it would take less than 24 hours for water from the breach to reach Valmeyer, and only a matter of minutes for it take the family home of Virgil and Darleen Gummersheimer. "You saw the real force of flood water and it was scary," said KSDK Photojournalist Joe Young. Young was the man behind the lens for a shot that would be seen around the world. "Even though it was kind of a memorable shot to get, it's still kind of depressing when you think about a family farm that had been there, in that family, for years reduced to rubble," said Young. Knobloch says the Gummersheimers have rebuilt, but by phone the couple said they did not want to talk about the events of 20 years ago. Back in Valmeyer they have rebuilt on higher ground. With the help of state and federal buy outs the town relocated and has not only survived but grown to 1,200 people. "Most of our residents are happy that we did what we did after the '93 flood because even as we look at situations now that unfold with the high river levels and the situations that people are in along the rivers we know that we don't have to be looking over our shoulder and be concerned about tha

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