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which the Federal Emergency Man- agement Agency calculated how much iI could distribute to state emergency management agencies for use in buying tlood threatened properties. To everyone's surprise. Volkmer"s bill moved quickly through Ihe House and the Senate. and was signed inro law by Presidenr C1inIon on December 2, 1993.5 Hermann's City Council. lead by CiIy Administrator Terry Helton. moved just as quickly to apply for Ihe bUYOUI money. On February 22. 1994. the Council submitted the paperwork to the federal government through the Meramec Regional Planning Com- mission for $2.2 million in buyout funds.6 The request asked for money to repair infrastructure and 10 bUYOUI residential and commercial property.7 Hermann's prospects for re- ceiving money improved when in the last week of May 1994. Missouri received addiIional money from Ihe Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jill Friedman assured the reporter thaI Governor Carnahan was committed to funding the residential buyout program firsI. and that "commercial property would be helped after Ihe residential requests were addressed:.R By July 5. Hermann.s appli- cation for money was approved, and on August 9. 1994. the IirsI residential buyout money arrived. Hermann received $494.750 to buy residential property. along with 5150.000 from anoIher government grant to pay for demolition of Ihe houses.9 Later. in October, 1994. Hermann received additional money to fund a buyout of commercial property from the Mis- souri DepartmenI of Economic De- velopmenl.l 0 In May 1995. Hermann once more faced record floods. This lime Ihe tloodwaIers were noI as high. but they remained over tlood stage for 85 sIraight days-a month longer than in 1993.11 Despite Ihese repeated inun- dations. there was room for optimism. Before the 1993 tlood. 69 property owners had tlood insurance. An article in the Advertiser Courier on SepIember 6. 1995. reported Ihat now there were 58. The article stated that the reason for the decline could "be attributed to property owners participating in the federal and slate buyout programs:. By October 4. 1995. Ihe firsI buyout homes in Hernlann were being demolished on WesI EighIh and Ninth SIreets. An additional thirteen resi- dences were on the list for demolition. and Barbara Bohley. the adminisIra- tor of Hermann's bUYOUI program. reported Ihat Hermann had requested additional money 10 buy "five or six more homes."12 Al Ihe end of the buyout program. 22 residential properties had been purchased. 13 The only problem with an otherwise smooth buyout occurred when demoliIion bulldozers demolished a home at 200 E. FifIh Street. Although a pre- demoliIion investigation indicated that the house was a modern sIructure, the inner core of the house was actually an "old frame house dating to 1840:. The destruction was unfortu- nate. but unavoidable. since the historic section of the house had been completely covered by later construc- lion, and was only discovered after destruction of the house had begun. 14 Today, Ihe land thaI was previously devastaIed by tlood waters in 1993 and 1995 is empty. except for a few holdouts who have raised their houses to what Ihey hope will be a level above the next tlood. Most of Ihe land is covered with grass. A porIion has been turned into a soccer field. and another part is being used as a parking lot for businesses located on nearby higher ground. 15 Page 37