PORTLAND, Mo. - Eighteen years ago, Loretta Mize spent a week stranded with her 4-year-old granddaughter and her mother-in-law when the Missouri River rose over its banks just a few hundred yards away, leaving her home surrounded by water.
With authorities predicting the potential for severe flooding again this summer, Mize and residents of other area river communities hope they are spared this time.
"Water was all the way up to the porch. It wasn't up here (in the house), but it was all around us," Mize said as she recalled being ....