DuPage County seeking $1 million from feds for flood relief

DuPage County is hoping to get $1 million in federal grant money to buy and raze houses that regularly flood.

Officials say they are seeking the grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which provides money to state and local governments to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures.

If its grant application is approved later this year, DuPage will have enough money to purchase five flood-prone properties.

Officials say there are houses scattered around the county that are below the flood line and it is too costly to try to stop them from flooding.

"Some of the houses were built back in the 1950s," Jim Zay, chairman of the county's stormwater management committee, said. "They are just too low. They never should have been built. By today's standards, they would never get a building permit."

The county wants to help those homeowners by offering a voluntary buyout program, Anthony Charlton, director of stormwater management, said.

DuPage has a list of more than 200 flood-prone parcels. Properties on the list are ranked based on how frequently and severely they flood.

Whenever the county gets enough money to buy a parcel, it makes an offer to whoever owns the property at the top of the list.

"If they're interested, we go with them," Charlton said. "If they're not, we go to number two on the list."

Once the county acquires a property, the house on the parcel is demolished. The site then becomes green space that can flood without causing damage.

The last time the county received federal money to help pay for buyouts was in 2015.

To qualify for this FEMA grant, the county has agreed to contribute $334,000 in local funding to help buy and demolish houses.

Because its negotiations with the homeowners are private, the county isn't releasing the locations of the properties it wants to purchase.