• WAUBAY, S.D. (AP) -- Standing along a South Dakota waterfront shored up with boulders, Kevin Jens peered at the placid lake and reminisced about a road that led to a popular place to fish and picnic nearby but now lies underwater after being swallowed up by rising waters.
• "There's an island under there," the mayor of Waubay said, breaking into an uncomfortable laugh and pointing to a grove of dead trees jutting from the water about a mile away.
• At a time when much of the Upper Midwest wrestled with the worst drought in decades, residents in this northeastern South Dakota community that sits among a chain of glacial lakes are raising roads, draining fields, moving their homes or leaving town. The dry weather has stabilized lakes, but homeowners in the town of about 550 are still dealing with a wet cycle that started in the early 1990s and has slowly gobbled up houses and land.
• Waubay has seen its population drop by more than 100 since 2000, and residents fear losing the town that was founded as a railroad stop 130 years ago.
• "What really makes them worry is where is our tax base and where is our revenue going to come from in the future," Jens said.
• Waubay native Rick Breske said residents are "trying hard to do the best we can to deal with the situation."
• "I give a lot of credit to the people who aren't picking up and leaving," he said.
• Waubay is in the middle of what is believed to be a closed basin, with no natural outlet. The 10 major bodies of water in the chain are: Bitter Lake, Blue Dog Lake, Enemy Swim Lake, Hillebrands Lake, Minnewasta Lake, Pickerel Lake, Rush Lake, Spring Lake, Swan Pond and Waubay Lake.
• The water has no place to go other than from one body to the next. Bitter Lake, south of Waubay, has grown from about 5 to 32 square miles in the last two decades. Waubay Lake, north of the town, has ballooned from about 8 to 27 square miles.
• On a recent ride through Waubay, Jens called attention to a row of vacant, boarded-up modular homes surrounded by weeds. The 16 units were built for low-income Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe members, but residents have scattered to other communities and there are no plans to revive the development.

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