Money acquired to buy flood-threatened homes in Ute Pass

El Paso County received $1.2 million this week to buy out four homeowners at greatest risk of flooding damage but still must reach an agreement with them.

The payout is mostly federal money but includes some state funds and is based on the value of the homes before they were affected by flooding after the Waldo Canyon Fire in June of 2012.

R.C. Smith, of the county’s Office of Emergency Management, said the money also includes the cost of demolishing the homes after the owners move out.

“We’ll leave some of it in a natural state and mitigate some of it,” Smith said. “No one will be allowed to build there again. It’s just not safe for those people to stay.”

Smith said two of the homes are in Cascade; one is a rental above Pyramid Mountain Road that’s been vacant since the fire and the other, on South Topeka Road, belongs to Tom Harris.

“We’re glad to hear (the money) has been approved,” Harris said. “We of course thank everybody who’s been working on it so hard. But I’m cautiously optimistic.”

The home has been in Harris’ family for several generations. He lost one building in a previous flood and his home remains surrounded by sandbags and rock mitigation.

Harris said he’s disappointed that, a day after county commissioners approved acceptance of the money, he hadn’t heard from the county about the situation.

However, a county official said he would update the homeowners over the next two days and try to reach final agreements over the next 30 days.

The two remaining homes on the list are next door to each other in Chipita Park. Both homes were extensively mitigated after the first post-Waldo flooding.