FLOODED COUPLE CHOOSE RIVER AS NAME OF BABY

Sarah River King was born Monday, the day after Mississippi River floodwaters receded enough to allow her parents to drive to their home.

For more than a month, Kim and Bruce King lived on an island created by flooding in rural Cape Girardeau County, boating in and out up until the last days of Kim's pregnancy.

She was more than eight months pregnant when the water first covered the road to their home July 7.

While the water never got inside the house, it was surrounded. For the weeks that followed, Kim and Bruce boated, first in a canoe and later in a borrowed john boat with a motor.

The trek was about a mile, but it was a clear shot, said Bruce. As the water went up, he sawed low-hanging limbs off trees to keep the path clear.

To commemorate their experience and the historic flooding that marked the days before their first child's birth, the Kings sought an appropriate name.

Even before little River made an appearance, her parents had settled on that name. It didn't matter if the baby was a boy or girl.

"It had a lot do to with the flood and with the flood being a historic event," Bruce said. "It is sort of a great natural event, the same as a birth."

Plus, he said, they wanted a unique name for their offspring.

Kim said: "Several people asked me why not name her ~Flood, but I thought that was a little negative. Although this has been a devastating event for a lot of people, it still is a wondrous natural event."

For two weeks before the birth, the couple had been away from their home, the location of which they asked not be publicized.

"We didn't want to be boating out in the middle of the night," Bruce said.

On Sunday, the river receded enough so the Kings could drive, through water, to the house. Early Monday morning Kim went into labor.

River the name her parents plan to call her was born at 6:55 a.m. Aug. 23, weighing in at 8 pounds and 12 ounces.

The baby was quietly attentive as her parents talked about her arrival. "She's not a raging River," her father said, "not yet, at least."