Seven years ago with 700 flooded houses, Austell was hit among the hardest with the overflow of five major streams when the September 2009 500-year flood struck this region.
Of those 700 houses, the city demolished about 70 and about 10 more face demolition since they have been abandoned - though not all of those 10 because of the flood, Austell Public Works Director Randy Bowens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Austell is still buying houses with the $10 million given to the city by the Georgia and Federal Emergency Management Agencies, he said.
Of that $10 million, close to $8 million has been spent to buy houses with only five houses remaining to be bought, Bowens said.
Austell residents, who submitted applications for flood relief right after the flood, may be eligible for funding even now since their properties have been classified as being in a flood zone when they were not at the time of the flood, he explained.
Those homeowners, who find houses to buy but not in a floodplain, still can have their “flood houses” bought by the city - again only if they submitted that initial application, Bowens said.
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