"We're too busy for sex." says Linda. "Yeah," Max laughs, "We only have time for mind sex." Linda explains that it took seven dumpsters to clean out all the flooded belongings from their house.

"The eighth dumpster took our sex life," she jokes. Watch: 3 Ways To Squeeze In More Sex

Both Max and Linda agree that the process of rebuilding after the flood was the most difficult challenge their marriage has ever faced. They didn't fight more, simply because they were too tired to fight. But Linda does recall some big arguments that arose, one involving where to put their new shower. Another when Max wanted to tear out her water-logged lilacs.

"I still do," he says pressing his hands together in mock prayer. "I pray to God every night, please take those lilacs." Linda reaches over and smacks his arm.

Max shrugs. "When you've been together long enough you know that those fights are really about the frustration, not about lilacs or a shower." Read: How To Fight Like a Wife

Katie, 26, and Andrew, 27, an Iraq veteran, were just shy of their three-year wedding anniversary when the flood took their home and their places of work.

"Everything we knew," explains Katie, "every piece of normalcy in our lives was just gone." The nonprofit office where Katie works was destroyed. During the flood, Andrew worked at a local hospital nearly three quarters of a mile from the river. It too sustained water damage. Katie and Andrew spent the summer fighting for their homes and their jobs. To boot, Katie discovered she was pregnant only three weeks after the flood hit.

"It was not the most relaxing time in our lives," Katie laughs, as she shushes to her two-month-old son. "We had been trying to have a child that spring. When the flood came we didn't think about it much. We heard that it was hard to conceive when you're stressed. But here he is."

For two months after the flood, the couple lived with friends. As Katie worked to rebuild the non-profit, Andrew worked to rebuild their home.

"It was definitely the hardest thing we've gone through as a couple," Katie says. "When Andrew was fighting in Iraq it was hard, but nothing like this. We had no refuge. No place to go for stability. The only people we could turn to were each other." 

Like Linda and Max, Katie says she and Andrew they were too tired to fight. Although they were frustrated and worn out, they tried to make sure they made time for one another. Living in someone else's home, they took a lot of walks to get some private time. In August, the couple took a quick vacation to regroup and relax.

"We didn't talk about the flood at all," Katie says. Katie thinks the flood drew her and Andrew closer. "I saw all the amazing things my husband was capable of." 

Both Katie and Andrew and Linda and Max have seen friends and neighbors torn apart by the flood. Linda says that she witnessed the marriages of her friends undergo a strain that will change them forever, but she's convinced that the worst of times show a person's true mettle.