FORT WAYNE – Fort Wayne officials on Friday announced winning a federal grant to remove another dozen flood-prone homes along Junk Ditch.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for nearly $750,000 will cover 75 percent of the 12 buyouts. The rest will be paid by the city. The homes will be purchased, razed and the land left as open green space.
“It has been my goal as mayor to ensure the utmost safety for all residents and helping provide stability, especially in areas that have been affected for years as the hardest hit flood-prone areas in Fort Wayne,” Mayor Tom Henry said in a statement.
Since the 2003 flood, more than 103 homes have been purchased and converted to green space, according to the city.
In 2009, the state announced a $1.5 million grant to purchase 40 flood-prone homes in the area.
The Junk Ditch neighborhood, tucked between Taylor Street and Covington Road on the city’s near-west side, has flooded at least five times in the last seven years.
The stream is a tributary to the St. Marys River and backs up whenever the St. Marys is high. Because the neighborhood was built on wetlands, the area is wide and flat and floods easily. When the water leaves its banks, wide swaths of the area go underwater.
The area is so large and floods so fast it is almost impossible for the city to do much to fight the floods, leaving residents to cope with fetid water in their homes over and over again.
“Home buyouts particularly benefit the Junk Ditch area by creating additional open green space for floodwater storage,” said Rodney Renkenberger, executive director for the Maumee River Basin Commission.
