Bobby Dale Hinkle can laugh about it now, but there wasn’t much funny about the summer of 2008. Heavy rains peaked with the June 9 flood that devastated their farmland and ruined their house north of Plainville.

“It has been a trying year,” Hinkle said, laughing at the understatement. “But we made it.”

Hinkle’s wife, Dottie, remembers the day of the flood well.

“It was unbelievable,” she said. “It tore the roads out...there was a lot of destruction. It’s a harsh river.”

Dottie, 59, said they’d never had flooding problems before at their old house, right off of SR 57 north of Plainville and a short distance from the railroad tracks and the west fork of the White River.

“You could see the water gradually coming,” she remembered. “You just didn’t know how far it was going to come.”

The water eventually was up to her hips, she said.

“It was like in the movies, the door flung open and the water rushed in.”

The Hinkles set up sandbags throughout the day, helped by friends. They were able to get some personal items out but they lost most of their furniture.

Bobby, 61, stayed at the house through the night, operating pumps to drain the water from the house while Dottie stayed with their daughter Renee Judy, 39, vice principal at North Daviess Elementary. The Hinkles have another daughter, Yvonne Keene, 38.

It soon became apparent the house was beyond saving. The Hinkles continued staying at Renee’s house in Plainville in order to get organized and figure out what to do next.

“We were in total shock,” Bobby said. “We just needed time to get our heads together.”

Farm operation couldn’t stop

While they recovered from the flood, Bobby said he had to keep farming. In addition to the 600 acres they own, the Hinkles farm another 1,800 acres in northern Daviess County and Greene County. Hinkle was named one of the state’s River Friendly Farmers by the Daviess County Soil and Water Conservation District dinner in February.