It was the end of march in a small Missouri town. Donny Baker was in his senior year of highschool. He lived in a small town north of St. Louis near the river. There is not a lot that happens there. Winter is ending and all the snow had melted a few weeks ago. Everyone was getting ready for spring and cleaning up from winter. Donny's family was not rich but they were not poor. They had enough to get by but never did anything like flying places for vacation. They spend a lot of their free time riding dirt bikes. Since they live in a small rural town you can get away with riding down the road because there were not many cops.  Donny would hangout with his friend Ron the most. Ron lived down the road and they had grown up together. Donny and Ron did everything together. They did the stuff you would expect highschool kids in the 90’s to do. They rode their dirt bikes, Went fishing, and would work on cars. Ron and Donny liked to hangout at each other's houses or go down by the river in the bottoms. The bottoms are just an area of flat land next to the river that is part of the old river bed. 

It was the last semester for donny and ron. Neither of them wanted to be at school and would try to avoid going as much as possible. Donny was worried about what he was going to do after highschool since he had yet to figure it out but Ron was not worried because he would work for his family company and take it over one day. After school Donny and Ron would try and have as much fun as they could getting involved in some stupid situations. Donny’s parents lived at the end of a long gravel road where it was set back and not easily seen from the main road so they did not care when donny and ron would bring home dumb projects or have muddy trucks and four wheelers parked there.

Winter had just ended and all the fields and ground were still saturated from the snow melt and rain. Donny and Rons typical after school activities consisted of going down to the river bottoms with a group of people and going mudding. Donnys dad had a ford truck from the late 60's. It was their old farm truck before it was parked in a field for a long time. Donny and Ron got it running again and lifted it up a little bit to offroad and have fun with. They would take it down to the river after school and see what it could and could not drive through. To get where they would hangout you have to drive far back and cross over the levee into the big flat field. The ground had been frozen the past couple of months because of winter so they had not been able to go back there since all the mud was frozen. Donny and Ron were planning on going there after school.

“What time do you want to go later?” asked Ron

“How about right after school. You can meet me at my house.” replied Donny

“Ok see you then.” said Ron

After school Ron drove over to Donny's house and they pulled the old truck out and got it running after it had sat for a while. They both piled in the old single cab and started going down the driveway. After a short drive Donny and Ron had made it to the road that leads to the levee. The spot where they cross the levee at is set back about half a mile from the actual river bank. There usually is never water anywhere near the levee in that particular spot on the river. While they were driving down the gravel road that reached the levee nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They started to go over the levee and then they stopped at the top. 

“Jesus i've never seen anything like this before.” said Donny

“We need to go back home!” said Ron

The water was about 4 feet from being at the top of the levee. Donny immediately put the truck in reverse and rushed home. He ran inside with Ron following behind him to tell his parents. They had already known but never mentioned anything. Donny went and parked the old truck again and went with Ron to go and help make some sandbags. The river had not flooded like this in many years. It was a few days after that when the levee about 30 minutes south had burst. It caused massive flooding in St Charles and around the neighboring area. Donny was lucky that his house was far enough away that it did not flood. Ron had a boat that he and Donny used  to help people get around and try to find stuff. The river reached a height of 20 feet above flood stage. After a few weeks the water had gone down and returned to normal. Donny was very lucky and was not affected by the water. Some of the people at his school were not as lucky and the town helped rebuild and make it better than before. Donny helped people rebuild barns and other structures with his friend Ron. the state had the levee rebuilt even bigger. With the construction of the new levee the access road that donny and ron used was moved and the land was turned into a farm field. The old truck was parked back in the woods where it would sit much longer since Donny went and started working after school.