Peoria County is working toward a new Hazardous Mitigation Plan for the floodplain of the Illinois River. Peoria Public Radio’s Tanya Koonce reports that comes along with ongoing efforts:
Peoria County Administrator Scott Sorrell says staff is working on the purchase of two more homes after the 2014 flooding of the Illinois River and the major flash flood of the Kickapoo Creek Valley in Edwards:
“There are structures remaining in both those watersheds. We’ve been working with the property owners that had their properties damaged. Many of the them voluntarily want to sell their property. We’ve went after some grant money to be able to do that.”
The county is looking to purchase another 40 properties over the next 2 years with a FEMA grant that specifies demolish. The county’s been working to mitigate the Illinois River Floodplain for about 30 years, when there were roughly 580 homes involved. About 125 properties have been purchased and cleared. Many other private citizens in the floodplain have paid to have their homes elevated. Meeting that standard means the lowest finished level of the home has to be above the FEMA base flood elevation of 32 feet.