News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston has resubmitted the necessary documents to TEMA in the next step to getting funding for long-term flooding mitigation.
The funding would allow the city of Livingston to purchase property from citizens with a high risk for flooding. UCDD Deputy Director Tommy Lee said that TEMA has to submit the documents to the federal level.
“And now we are simply waiting for the Federal Emergency Agency–which is FEMA–to open up funding to allow the city to go in and buy those properties,” Lee said. “And that’s where we currently sit.”
Lee said the process has taken a long time because Overton County needed to adopt a county-wide hazard mitigation plan before the city could submit property owners for a federal buy-out. Lee said he believes the program is good for property owners, the city of Livingston, and FEMA itself.
“When the city buys their houses they can relocate and thus their homes or their businesses won’t be subject to that ‘hundred-year flood,'” Lee said. “It helps the city because they no longer have to provide emergency services to this area, and then it also helps Federal Emergency Management Agency because they don’t have to keep paying out flood insurance claims.”
Lee said currently, the city is playing waiting game as they wait for TEMA to submit their documents once federal funding opens up. Lee said that Livingston has done everything it can up this point. Lee said both the timeline for funding and the numbers themselves are up in the air.
“What I believe will happen is they will evaluate each individual property and see which ones pose the greatest risk, and they would potentially give the city X amount of dollars to purchase however many pieces of property that they deem would be a high risk for the potential of flooding.”
Lee said Livingston has been diligent in ensuring the UCDD submits all paperwork they’ve needed to and that the city and UCDD are working to ensure they are providing citizens with as many updates that they can.
