17 More Iowa Homeowners Accept Flood Damage Buyouts

More Cedar Rapids homeowners are accepting buyout offers for their flood-damaged properties.

Officials say 17 more homeowners have signed offers to have the city buy their properties, which were heavily damaged in the flood of 2008. That brings to 45 the number who have done so among a first group of 117 homeowners most at risk of flooding again.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is helping to purchase the houses to create a greenbelt along the Cedar River.

FEMA will pay 90 percent of the purchase cost and the state will pay 10 percent.

The process, when completed, could result in as many as 1,200 buyouts.

City spokeswoman Rita Rasmussen said Cedar Rapids anticipates the first closings on the purchases to take place in late January.