HANNIBAL, MO. -- UPDATE
A Hazard Mitigation Grant agreement has been reached between the City of Hannibal and the State Emergency Management Agency.
The money from the grant agreement will be used to clean up after the flood of 2008.
The city plans to acquire three vacant lots and demolish 23 properties in flood prone areas.
The project will cost more than 900 thousand dollars, 75 percent of which will be paid for by FEMA & SEMA funds.
The city was required to accept the mitigation grant requirement in order to get the federal funds.
The responsibility for the rest of the cost, which is a little more than 248 thousand dollars, will fall on the city shoulders.
It will be covered by a Community Development Block Grant.
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The Federal and State Emergency Management Agencies have approved grants to pay for those buyouts.
The City Council is expected to vote to accept the money at Tuesday's meeting.
The bad news is the money might not actually arrive for more than a year.
Latonda Rickey is living through her own personal nightmare. After the flood waters of 2008 damaged the floors of her trailer, she and her family applied for a buyout. They'd been waiting almost two years for money to move away when July's flash flooding damaged her home even more.
Rickey said, "If it wouldn't have taken two years I wouldn't have been here. We live here because its our only choice. We don't have a lot of money but people from FEMA really have no idea what its like down here. FEMA says they know how you feel but they have no idea how we feel."
She's one of many I spoke with on Tuesday. One of the most desperate situations I saw was a couple living in a small bus with less space than this room I am standing in. They didn't want to go on camera but they said their house had been damaged after 2008. They were also waiting for that buyout when flood waters rushed through their home in July, making it uninhabitable. Now they are wondering how they are going to get through another year without help.
And another issue for folks in the flood plain is the buyout itself. Folks I talked with fear they'll get less for their 2008 property buyout because of the new flood damage from this year.
Hannibal City Manager Jeff LaGarce says the city is moving as fast as it can, but federal red tape and paperwork is holding everything up. He says the city would like to move faster, but has to follow strict timetables and guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and FEMA in order for the city to see any of the million dollars in federal buyouts.
Twenty-six residential properties are involved in the buyout.
Some of the lengthy steps include several months of environmental clearance testing, asbestos identification, appraisal of the properties and a review of the appraisals.
LaGarce said, "It's a pretty lengthy process. You have to employ every service from appraisers to environmental inspectors. I wish it were a process where we could come out and offer money but we have to go through a lot of processes before we get clearance to actually offer money for aquisitions."
In the meantime, Rickey is hoping to make it through a third winter in her damaged home. She just hopes this nightmare will end.
Rickey said, "Most of us signed up for the buyout because we could get out of here. Why is it taking so long? Why can't they get through the red tape for us?"
Meanwhile the city is also working to get FEMA buyouts for the city's commercial properties affected in the flood of 2008. The grant has alsoeen approved and right now the city is in the middle of contracting for asbestos inspections.
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