NACHES -- David Conner said the water was about thigh-high and fast-moving when he stepped out of his home in 1996 to rescue his family.

Helicopters came to their rescue, they took boats instead of cars, watched interstates split in two and tried to do everything they could to stop the water from rushing in.

But the most unforgettable moment of the 1996 flood to Conner, "My children, they had never been in that much water and in me carrying them out on my hips to the truck and them holding onto the pets and me crossing the water."

It's the first time since then that Conner has needed to prepare for a flood. He'd moved into his home eight days before the flood and said fire crews knocked on his door to warn him and his family to leave several times, before they finally left.

"I'm ready for it this year," he said.

He's ready because his home's now several yards away from where it once was and a foot higher.

Before, if the Naches River flooded his home was in it's path.

On Friday, officials warned the Naches River was close to flood stage -- rising from warm temperatures melting snow.

Although the river could get higher and eventually spill over. Conner said he and his neighbors are prepared to do this again. The '96 flood taught them a lot and anyone with the Naches river in their backyard's likely preparing for the worst, even if the worst doesn't come.

Conner went into high gear: getting hay bales and dirt ready to stop a flood and preparing trailers to save his animals.

If that doesn't work his children created an emergency plan for him and his wife. Soon after the '96 flood, Conner's kids built him a tree house.

"So I've got everything to fight water if water come," said Conner.