(CBS) — Mammoth storms left entire neighborhoods underwater in April. Now the big recovery is under way.

CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot looks at how people are getting their lives back together.

Brian Crow, who lives in Lisle, took a picture in front of his house after escaping by canoe.

“This is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my entire life,” he says.

The water was coming in quick. In about one hour, there was about two feet of water, inside the house. A water line still remains.

The water left wood buckling. Crow has been cleaning and gutting.

“This entire neighborhood looked like a war zone because everyone took everything they owned out to the curb,” he says.

Crow is among the 700 people in the village seeking help from FEMA. The federal relief agency set up a temporary office at the Lisle Police Department.

“It’s an individual, case by case” process, says Sandy Ramsey, manager of the FEMA disaster recovery center. “So, they’re going to get registered and then a FEMA inspector is going to go out and look at their damages.”

Meantime, Crow says he’s just waiting for a permit from the village, so he can rebuild and move on.

“I’m not going to give up because this is my home and I have nowhere else to go,” he says.

The Small Business Administration is also assisting business and homeowners along with renters in Lisle with disaster loans.