My mother was a telephone switchboard operator in Clarendon Ark in the 1930s when the White River flooded. The whole area is very low, and when the waters started rising, she stayed at the switchboard (on the 2nd floor of the building) until some samaritan in a boat pulled up to the window and invited her to climb in. He rowed her to safety. As I remember the story, she said it was months before all the water receded and years before the area recovered.