Bryan Boltz thumbs through a Bible that has been in his family for four generations, now destroyed by water from a flood in 1998. Mr. Boltz's property is approximately 150 feet from Rae's Creek, which flooded his house and nearby property. JEFF JANOWSKI/STAFF

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Web posted June 13, 2000

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By Matthew Boedy
Staff Writer

Eddie Weigle does not like October. In the past decade, his house on Avery Drive in south Augusta along Rocky Creek has flooded three times - 1990, 1994, 1998 - all during October.

Because of the repeated damage to his home, Mr. Weigle is among a group of Augustans who have been asked by Augusta-Richmond County officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to sell their homes.

Those agencies want to buy out eight homes - on a volunteer basis - that are on the flood plains of Rae's and Rocky creeks because they say the federal insurance payouts are getting too high.

Residents who live in the chosen houses say they are waiting for the right price to move.

``I have not seen an offer,'' said Mr. Weigle, who has lived on Avery Drive with his wife, Edith, for 18 years. ``It has a lot to do with the offer. I will not move out for the value of my house. We have roots here. They're going to have to compensate for that.''

Augusta Emergency Management Agency Director Dave Dlugolenski said the money for the buyouts will come from a grant totaling $539,950. FEMA is footing 75 percent of the buyouts, and the city will put up the rest.

The National Flood Insurance Program pays insurance fees on flood damages. FEMA estimates repeated flood losses have cost Georgia taxpayers an estimated $37 million since the program began.

Mr. Dlugolenski said the repeated costs of repairing flood damage are rising so much that they are near or equal to the market values of the selected homes. He said that is why the government wants to buy them.

The waters at Mr. Weigle's home have gotten as high as the third layer of siding on his house - about level with his wife's shoulder as she pointed out the water line.

Although national flood insurance has paid an estimated $43,000 in repairs, Mr. Weigle said the government is not solving the creek's flood problems.

In 1991, Mr. Weigle said the city came to dredge the creek, which runs about 50 yards away in the back of some woods, but was told it could not by the Army Corps of Engineers.

``If they would let them maintain the creek like it's supposed to be, we would not have all the problems we have,'' he said. ``This hand says one thing. This hand says another.''

Another selected homeowner, Gloria Boltz, who lives on Kipling Drive along Rae's Creek, said the fact that the government is willing to buy her house tells her their work along the creek is suspect.

Five days after Mrs. Boltz and her husband moved in to their house in 1998, it flooded. They lost everything because they still had most of their stuff packed in boxes on the first floor. She said the city worked hard to bolster the embankments with rocks to stop future floods.

``If they are willing to buy homes out, if they're willing to go to that extent, they might not be sure what they've done is enough,'' she said. ``I think they don't think it's going to work.''

Mr. Dlugolenski said the selected houses are the first fruits of a new program designed to identify flood-damaged houses and stop the repeated payouts. He said now that the city has started a database of those houses, more can be selected for buyout and less money can be spent on insurance.

``It will eliminate pain and suffering for the owner,'' he said. ``It is a win-win situation for the owner.''

Reach Matthew Boedy at (706) 823-3339.