CAPE HELPED BY FLOOD BUYOUT

Cape Girardeau is one of 30 Missouri cities that would benefit from a federal flood buyout program, says a study by the National Wildlife Federation.

That's nice to know, say city officials, especially since the city is completing its nearly $2.5 million buyout of homes damaged in the 1993 and 1995 Mississippi River floods.

"We've already been benefited," said Mayor Al Spradling III. "They're about a year and a half too late."

Nip Kelley Equipment Co. is demolishing the last 23 homes of the 114 designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the buyout program.

The National Wildlife Federation's "Higher Ground" report found that the 30 communities, including Cape Girardeau, have clusters of property with a history of flooding about every six years.

The report also found that 879 single-family homes around the state have received flood insurance payments greater than the value of the home. Statewide, the federal flood insurance program paid out $52.5 million for properties valued at $38.5 million over an 18-year period -- most since the 1993 flood.

Sixteen state communities, including Cape Girardeau, are among the nation's top 200 communities for total flood insurance payments made to properties with repetitive losses.

Ken Eftink, who oversees the city's flood buyout program, said it is hard to argue with the wildlife group's logic.

"Cape Girardeau does have a history of repetitive loss," he said. After the 1993 flood, 283 claims for reimbursement were filed on 86 properties in the flood zone -- an average of 3.3 claims per property.

Since the 1993 flood, Eftink said, the federal flood insurance program has paid out $6.5 million in claims in the city. Some 292 city properties are insured for more than $39 million through the flood insurance program, he said.

The federal flood buyout program works, Spradling said.

"This is one proactive program that I think is very good," he said. "It does something. It's not a giveaway. It's something that is for the benefit of the health and welfare of this community or any community for that matter."

After the 1993 flood, Spradling said, the city didn't have the funding to move residents from flooded-out houses or to tear down flood-damaged properties.

The city has acquired about 25 acres through the buyout that will probably be used to create neighborhood parks, Spradling said.

Federal law stipulates that permanent structures can't be built on flood buyout property.

The buyout costs weren't the only expenditures for the flood, Eftink said.

The city spent about $700,000 fighting the floods of 1993 and 1995, he said.

The buyout and other flood control projects undertaken around the city -- including the joint Cape La Croix-Walker Branch project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- should save the city about $400,000 a year in future flood damages, Eftink said.

The American Red Cross also spent about $700,000 after the two floods to assist flood victims.

In addition, Eftink said, volunteers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Salvation Army and private citizens contributed "countless" dollars and man-hours fighting the floods.

"You look at all those things and the flood buyout is an incredible bargain," Eftink said.