For 40 years, Shirley Moss has lived in the same home in a tiny southeast Missouri town, but as the sandbags piled up yet again, she didn't hesitate when asked if she would take a government buyout.

"In a New York minute," Moss said from her double-wide mobile home in Dutchtown, which sits in a Mississippi River bottom. "I'm 75 years old — I can't fight this."