In the end, the best flood models — and hours of gruelling work — couldn’t stop the water.

The sandbags surrounding Matt Dykshoorn’s chicken barns couldn’t save thousands of his birds from drowning.

The consequences of the decision he made to keep his dairy herd at home, instead of shuttling the cows off to higher ground, wouldn’t be known until hours after the floodwater reached his barn doors late Thursday and began to seep inside.

On Friday, his farm surrounded by water, Dykshoorn was waiting for it to recede so cleanup could begin. Two sleepless nights threatened to turn into many more.

Asked how he was feeling, the farmer said the experience was both “frustrating and defeating.”

“We spent the last four years picking up and rebuilding, and now we’re looking at doing it again,” he

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