When your life and livelihood are so dependent on a lake, as Chris Stender's are, a flood like the one that hit his hometown here over the weekend throws everything into a muddy tailspin. After heavy rainfall ruptured the Lake Delhi dam here on Saturday, pushing record-high flood waters down the Maquoketa River, this hot Sunday became a day of reckoning. Stender, 42, who owns a lakeside marina and a nearby home, is beginning to survey the damage. 'I lost half my home and my business in one day,' he said. 'I don't know what I'll do. My God.' The flood waters in eastern Iowa have dropped, leaving a sticky residue along with the uncertainty and disbelief. Officials estimate that 8,000 people were affected by the record rise of the Maquoketa River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. It was fueled by unrelenting rain and the first failure of the 83-year-old dam. Waters that went through the breached dam snapped up trees, boats and docks on Saturday, shredding them in seconds and spitting them down river. 'It really was like evil forces,' said Shirley Helmrichs, a Delaware County supervisor. Helmrichs said that county employees had run scenarios for a dam breach, but that they had been based on a crest that was four feet lower than the one on Saturday. Towns down river -- Hopkinton, which has 700 residents, and Monticello, population 3,700 -- braced themselves for the brunt of the flood's fury. Flood sirens sounded, and officials called for the evacuation of Hopkinton's south side. Residents waited and watched for a reported 'surge' or '10-foot wall of water.' It never came. Helmrichs said the towns had been spared because the flood waters spread over a wide area, dissipating over thousands of acres of farmland. The largest recovery effort mounted on Sunday revolved around Lake Delhi, which is lined by 900 homes and vacation cabins, said the Lake Delhi Recreation Association president, Jim Willey. Home values range from about $100,000 to $800,000, he said. Roughly half have been damaged by the flood, he said. The dam belongs to the Lake Delhi Recreation Association, but the obliterated road above it is county property, a situation that could result in tangled politics. Willey said the association intended to rebuild the dam, and he was hopeful that outside aid will pour in. The dam's breach could not be prevented, Willey said. 'The bottom line is the dam just wasn't designed for this much water. The power of water is awesome.' 