Rock Valley, Iowa (Radio Iowa) — Eighteen months after the floods, residents in Rock Valley are still waiting to see if FEMA will buy out their homes. City Administrator Tom Van Maanen (MAH-nun) says they have combined 150 properties into one final request, but the timeline is painful.

The original application for 122 homes, but failed FEMA’s “cost-benefit” test. So, the city added 28 more properties to the mix. They hope this larger group of 150 homes will finally score high enough to unlock that federal funding.

State officials are expected to finish reviewing that new, combined request by next week before sending it off to FEMA.