On May 3, Mr. Petty, 50, called Mr. Saul, 36, to take a look at the levee. They agreed that it probably would not hold. Mr. Saul got a backhoe from his farm to move more dirt and raise the levee walls, and later James and Margie Saul, his parents, came by with a trackhoe to further bolster the levee.

“This is a matter of too much rain, too quick,” the elder Mr. Saul said. “This river is like the weather — you might not like it, but you just got to take it.”

Image Credit... The New York Times

The forecast called for more rain. Mr. Petty thought about giving up.

While he was working on the levee, about 100 people arrived and cleared Mr. Petty’s house of all belongings. He had not asked them to. It just happened. He said he did not even know who some of them were. His wife, Cheryl, stayed with her parents at night, and both of his adult sons came over to help.

The water covered his driveway and the road in front of his house. Canopies of trees jutted out of the waterscape and created a jungle-like maze. A half-mile up the submerged road, dump trucks piled sand on dry ground and Mr. Petty’s friends bagged sand and loaded the bags into the johnboats to be transferred to the levee.

When night fell and neighbors departed, there was Mr. Petty alone, sleeping in an empty bedroom on lawn chair cushions with a blanket, pillow and a life jacket.