Tropical Storm Floyd was his 20th flood. The water rose so high, it nearly came through his front door. Still, he managed to get his son to school each day. He'd row him to the railroad tracks, then they'd walk along the tracks into Mountain View, where he'd parked his car. The floods don't bother her much except in the winter.
Most suburbanites buy grills for their back yards.
Hoffman Grove residents buy canoes. They're usually gone after the first flood. If the government has its way, this neighborhood will one day vanish. State officials say it's cheaper for taxpayers to buy these homes than to continue spending millions on rescues and rebuilding. Fact is, the old picnic grounds were never meant to hold year-round homes, said George Holzapfel, director of Wayne's Department of Public Works.