Story County Acquisitions
Properties Transformed for Training Uses

Story County, IA - The Arrowsmith development in Story County is located approximately 2 miles north of Ames, Iowa, and has received repetitive flooding within the last 7 years. The six properties included in this acquisition experienced flooding in 1990, 1993, and 1996. The types of damage caused by these flooding events included collapsed basement walls, damaged porches, damaged exterior walls, damaged interior walls; and destroyed furnaces, water heaters, and other household appliances. These homes suffered more than $318,747 in real property damage from flooding.

This project was funded with $549,662 from FEMA in cooperation with Iowa Emergency Management Division (now Homeland Security Department of Emergency Management), and an additional 25 percent contributed by Story County and the property owners. At least $732,884 was budgeted to acquire the properties, properly dispose of any hazardous materials, demolish the structures, and return the area to a natural habitat.

The project has been a great success for Story County. In 1998, the county experienced more flooding. At the time of this most recent flooding, site visits were made to the acquired structures, which at the time had not been completely demolished. FEMA Region VII personnel determined that all of the structures would have suffered over 50 percent damage again, only 2 years after the previous flood. The estimated present savings after just one flood event are as high as $541,900, not including avoided costs of warning, rescue and evacuation.

To aid the task of demolition, the vacant houses were transformed into classrooms and practice sites for the Iowa State Fire School. From June 18 through June 21, 1998, fire and emergency personnel from across the state and some surrounding states utilized the flood properties to study arson investigation techniques, practice fire-fighting strategies and conduct other hands-on training.

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