PEACHAM, Vt. (WCAX) – Hundreds of Vermonters continue to wait on federal buyouts from flooded properties from the past two years. While a total of 325 have requested home buyouts from FEMA, not one has gone through.
Rachael Moragues bought her Peacham home a couple of years ago.
From the outside, it looks relatively okay. But inside, if you look closely, there are serious problems. Cracks in the wall, warped floors, and separating stairs. “The house is sinking. There are cracks in the foundation and holes you can see on the ground,” Moragues said.
Shortly after we first met in July, the was deemed unlivable. Moragues then began pursuing a federal buyout because the cost to fix it did not make sense. “If we were to try to repair, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. And here’s why — you have to meet this code and that code and lift the house and find a place to put a septic system,” Moragues said. But she fears she could be waiting a long time for a buyout. No FEMA buyouts from flooding a year earlier have closed.
“The funding round that we are putting the project to right now is the July 2023 funding round,” said Stephanie Smith with Vermont Emergency Management. She says they completed a few state buyouts and that federal dollars are beginning to be awarded. The agency is now leading the buyout effort which is expected to speed up the process. “The timeline — we don’t control all the pieces in the timeline. We don’t control all the federal bureaucracy behind the requirements of the program, but we are trying to simplify it as much as we can.”
Moragues says she’s grateful for the help she has received on the state and federal level but she’s also anxious about the future. “What am I going to do for the next two years? What am I going to do? Stay at people’s houses? I can’t buy a place. I still have to pay for this,” she said.
State officials say the buyouts are voluntary. Individual towns also have to opt in and commit to maintaining the properties as open green spaces if and when the buyout takes place.