Victoria Gets $1.2 Million FEMA Grant for Flood Prone Property
Release Date: January 13, 2000
Release Number: R6-00-15
DENTON, Texas -- After the record-breaking flood of October 1998 the City of Victoria, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), and the State of Texas said it was time to reduce flood losses along the Guadalupe River. The best way is to move people out of the way of the River, R. L. Buddy Young FEMA Regional Director, asserted.
The City will get a FEMA grant of $1,251,237 administered by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, to pay 75 percent of the cost to purchase 108 flood-damaged structures. Victoria will pay the remaining $417,079.
This is just the beginning of what we can do to protect ourselves from devastating flood waters raging through homes and businesses, Young said. We should be more conscious of floodplains. We should not build homes and businesses where nature becomes our enemy.
Young said the land will be deeded to the City who will demolish the structures, clear the debris, and maintain the land as recreational open space. "The voluntary buyout project is the most cost-effective means of permanently reducing flood losses in communities heavily damaged by the flooding," Young said.
"Accomplishing such mitigation projects requires cooperation between the property owners and many levels of city, state, and federal government," Young stressed. "We are completing this project because of the way the City, the State of Texas, and FEMA have joined in this partnership with property owners to solve flooding problems."
"We want to reduce future flood losses and human suffering while we also reduce the costs for flood disasters. The property owners who accept a buy-out will not suffer from another flood, nor will the federal, state, and local governments have to finance flood losses, and taxpayers save money," Young claimed.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 03-Dec-2003 14:10:13