By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

RIVERTON, Kan. — A federal buyout of houses damaged in flooding last June in Cherokee County is progressing, said Jason Allison, county emergency management director.

Twenty-one houses along Spring and Neosho rivers and Shoal Creek are on a list of substantially damaged properties. Included are structures in Riverton, Baxter Springs, rural Galena and Chetopa.

The term “substantially damaged” means that the cost of repairing a structure would total more than half its value.

Allison said two of the houses have been bought, and the program is scheduled to close on four more houses next month. He said the program is voluntary. If a homeowner accepts the buyout, he cannot build a permanent structure on the property in the future.

The value of the 21 houses with substantial damage is $708,482

Fourteen other structures are on a list of non-substantially damaged structures in the flood area that may be considered for buyouts. Their value totals $1,016,536.

Allison said homeowners who don’t accept the buyout must elevate their houses to a foot above the flood level in order to receive flood insurance.

Cherokee County would be required to provide a maximum of $86,251 if all the houses were approved for buyouts.

Allison said it probably seems to homeowners like a slow procedure, but he said that when the government bought out houses after the 1993 flood, no offers were made until two years later.

“I’m sure for the homeowner, it seems like an eternity,” he said.

The flood buyout program in Cherokee County is through the Kansas Division of Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and financed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.