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A Closer Look: Commerce, Mo. Commerce Mayor Hopes for Buyout Given the history of recent flooding in Commerce,Mayor Roy Jones said a federal buyout is the most sensible path to recovery. Local officials in the City of Commerce (pop. 173) voted not to participate in the buyout program in 1993. With more flooding in 1995 and a new board of trustees, Mayor Roy Jones hopes a buyout will become a reality in Commerce. "People in this town are tired of the constant flooding and just want to get out," says Jones. Had this small community in southeast Missouri participated in the buyout program in 1993, Jones believes significant costs, both in human and economic terms, could have been avoided in 1995. After the Great Flood of 1993, 63 residents of Commerce applied for disaster assistance. Between disaster housing, individual and family grants and low-interest loans from the Small Business Adminis- tration, those 63 flood survivors received a total of $145,860 in disaster assistance. According to Mayor Jones, the same properties flooded again this year. "It's even worse this year," he says. "The river was 18 inches higher here than it was in '93." Indeed, the 1995 disaster will be even more expensive in Commerce. -Southeast Missourian June 14, 1995 More than $229,000 in disaster- related assistance programs will go towards helping 53 residents there recover from yet another flood event. "FEMA has been in here paying off people year after year after year," explains Jones. "Without a buyout, it means we'll go through flood after flood after flood. Most of the people here are elder! y people. They're retired and low- income folks. They can't afford to pick up and leave. These people in town are losing everything they've got year after year." In December, 1994, the U.S. House of Representatives' Task Force on Natural Disasters released a report examining the nation's disaster strategy following a string of costly disasters. Its major conclu- sion was that the growth of the federal government's role in disaster response increased public expecta- tions. Among the goals of the Task Force were to: . encourage individuals to assume greater responsibility in disasters and help make insurance and other resources available to assist that effort; . reduce the costs of disasters by encouraging effective preparedness VI. Self Reliance and mitigation activities; . reduce the costs of disasters to federal taxpayers and emphasize the supplementary role of federal assistance in disasters. . encourage state and local govern- ments to become more active in preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. One of the most important out. comes of the buyout program is reducing dependence on the govern- ment in such disasters by eliminat- ing the risk. To accomplish this, the Missouri program was designed to incorporate special relocation assistance. Many floodplain residents lived there because it was the only affordable housing they could find. These were low to moderate income families, the working poor. Many owned or rented mobile homes which offered the only single-family housing available within their budget. To help them find appropriate replace- ment housing in the uplands, a one. time relocation benefit was added. This helped buy down the cost of replacement housing so that monthly payments would fall within an affordable range for these families, Even with these benefits added to the cost of the buyout program, taxpayers still realize a savings by reducing hundreds of units of flood. prone housing in communities throughout the state.