We get 15" at a time as a matter of routine here.  That's not a big deal.  I asked a simple question, and while you and several others have attacked me, nobody has yet answered the question.  Why would anyone leave a machine parked below the level of the river at flood stage when it is flooding?  I don't care if it's behind a levee, levee's obviously can break.  Hills, on the other hand, do not break. 

There are lots of people who farm river and creek bottom around here.  I don't know anyone who leaves their machinery parked in a flood plain during a flood.   We seldom leave machinery parked anywhere where it cannot get to the road regardless of how much it might rain....lots of times it will rain on one farm and not on another and we don't want the machine stranded where we can't move it out to work somewhere else that is fit.  Even if the rain is general, there is almost always a good reason to want the machine in the shop before it dries out so you can run again. 

Part of my yard gets water in it when we get a heavy rain.  I don't park my car in that part of the yard.  I park it in the garage, which, so far, has never got water in it.  I've been trying for years to explain this concept to my wife, yet she persists in putting stuff that is not waterproof in the basement, and then she acts irritated when my attitude reflects the concept of "failure to plan ahead on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."  Having stuff in there the first time it flooded was an unfortunate learning experience.  The second and subsequent times, it was a failure of judgement.   

I don't understand why people choose to build grain storage in a place where it might have to be evacuated, either.  I suppose I deserve to be attacked for that, too?  

It seems to me that life presents enough challenges without making your own.