Roughly two years after historic flooding caused extensive damage to neighborhoods in Spencer, Iowa, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved funding to acquire 25 residential properties.
The city will receive $3.4 million, Spencer City Manager Kevin Robinson explained during Monday’s City Council meeting, according to Explore Okoboji.
Some steps ahead include paying off mortgages and slating the demolitions for those properties by next spring.
Robinson said a FEMA goal is to reduce impacts on homes located in 100-year floodplains.
Back in January, Robinson told Siouxland Public Media News the Spencer City Council members approved a $10 million application for a final package from a FEMA buyout program for up to 40 properties where homeowners will move instead of rebuilding.
Robinson previously said buyouts of the 40 homes could be in the range from $100,000 to $260,000, based on their values before the flood, which flowed out of the Little Sioux River
