Colorado Springs, FEMA register 84 for landslide program
Colorado Springs on Tuesday revealed the number of homeowners who registered for a federally sponsored financial assistance plan for landslide victims.
A city official said 84 people signed up for the plan by the March 4 deadline.
Bob Jardon is one of the applicants. He has owned a home in the Broadmoor Bluffs neighborhood since 2010.
“I have cracks in the driveway, on the walls and floors,” he said. “My house is moving to the northeast. I’ll probably have to leave before fall. The bills keep piling up. Optimistically, relief is three years away.”
Jardon said six homes in his neighborhood have some kind of landslide damage.
The plan is overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and provides an unspecified amount of money that is administered to states, which is in turn used by local governments to buy out homes and property damaged by landslides.
Dozens of homes are damaged or threatened by landslides caused after heavy rain last spring. Many residents face losing their homes and property because insurance doesn’t cover landslide damage.
The FEMA plan can reimburse up to 75 percent of an affected homeowner’s property value.
Some of the affected homeowners live near damaged homes or have homes built on soil that could shift or slide in the future.
It’s unclear whether the city will qualify for funding, how much it could receive and when money could be distributed.
Gordon Brenner of the city’s Office of Emergency Management said the process can be long and slow.
“Our due date (to send the applications) to the state is May 10, their due date to the federal government is in the middle of June and then FEMA has to work its process,” he said. “We’ll find out most likely later this year of what’s going on.”
But Brenner added that the city is still waiting for federal reimbursement for flood damage that happened in 2013.
Some affected homeowners said the recent dry weather has slowed, but not stopped, the movement of landslides.
A team of city engineers continues to inspect and evaluate the damaged homes.
Most of the affected homes are on the city’s west side in the Skyway, Broadmoor, Broadmoor Bluffs and Rockrimmon neighborhoods.
