Marc Jacobs Hobo near the top of their trailer

"I was in shock," said Sandoval, who with her husband bundled their four children, their bed and a few other belongings together. They arrived at a Hope Presbyterian Church shelter at 4 a.m. on April 30 and have been there ever since.

"Most people here seem fine. They're laughing and the children are playing," said her 16-year-old daughter, Silvia. But she said the uncertainty was a constant worry in the shelter. "Where are we going to go? Where are we going to

Marc Jacobs Hobo

live?" she asked. "I see my parents worrying about this, and it worries me too."

The water remains near the top of their trailer, and roads leading to the mobile home park remained closed Tuesday.

Jack Kelley, the church spokesman, said the river's relatively slow rise had given emergency officials time to issue warnings and set up shelters, averting a major disaster but also making it easy for people not directly affected to miss the significance of the event. "It didn't displace people overnight," Kelley said.

But it could be weeks before people can go home, and before businesses and homeowners can clean up the mess left behind when the river recedes. That will include mountains of debris, as well as dangerous river snakes and even deer pushed inland by the rising water.