(Radio Iowa) – Communities in northwest Iowa are waiting for FEMA to approve buyouts for properties that were damaged by flooding in the summer of 2024. Tom Van Maanen — the city administrator in Rock Valley — says his community is asking for federal funding to help buy and demolish just over 12 dozen homes. “For the homeowners, this has been a very long and painful process ’cause they’re paying mortgages in homes they don’t live in,” Van Maanen says.

Under FEMA’s buyout program for homes in flood zones, 75 percent of the funding comes from the federal government, the state provides 10 percent and 15 percent comes from the local community. Rock Valley is seeking 40 MILION dollars from FEMA to support buying 145 homes, but FEMA asked for more information about a few of the properties.

This home in Rock Valley was destroyed by flooding in the early morning hours of June 22, 2024. (2024 file photo by Iowa Public Radio’s Sheila Brummer)

“It’s been quite a journey for a small-town local government having to go through the gauntlet that is FEMA funding. It has been a challenge, but we’ve worked with some very good people along the way and we’ve made a lot of progress,” Van Maanen said. “…We’re really looking forward to being able to contact the homeowners and say: ‘Hey, our project has been approved. We’re going to move forward.’ And we’ll be working on a timeline that’s up to us so we can help them.”

State officials say Sioux County as well as the cities of Spencer, Rock Rapids, Hawarden, Correctionville and Sioux Rapids have submitted buyout requests to FEMA. Estherville and Cherokee are still finalizing their applications and have until the end of the year to submit the paperwork to FEMA. Once a property is purchased under this program, the parcel becomes public land and made into a park or water retention area.