Volunteers pulled empty sandbags from the pile, passing down the line to be expertly filled, tied, stacked, and sent to the levee protecting Portage Des Sioux.
With their machine, volunteers can put out about 10,000 sandbags a day, just a fraction of what they'll haul to the levees in what's become something of an annual pilgrimage to the banks of the Mississippi River.
"It's also becoming a part of our way of life, as much as I hate to say it," Rivers Pointe Fire Protection District Chief Rick Pender said. "And the other thing I hate to say too: we're good at it."
Pender said they're using sandbags, plywood walls and bulldozers to add height to the levee system, buying time for people to move their possessions or relocate.
But it's too late for Jerry Rice.
"Everybody's got cars and trailers parked up here. This is the high ground in the area," Jerry Rice said.
Flooding overtook Rice's house earlier this month, and now the water's back. But he said it shouldn't be like this, blaming the same levee system that will likely save his neighbors.
Rice said the levee district heightened the barrier after he bought his house.
"I didn't have any worries," Rice said of his home buying experience. "I thought it'd really have to flood hard to get me. But it doesn't have to flood hard anymore."
Now Rice is on the wrong side of the waterline, as others work to make sure they aren't too.
"It's been hard to live here, but I still don't want to leave," Rice said.