The Buy-Out Program

After the Flood of '96, which killed ten people in the Catskills, left dozens homeless, disrupted thousands more, and led state and federal governments to pay more than $20 million in aid and infrastructure assistance across Delaware County, the Federal Emergency Management Agency established its Hazard Mitigation Buy-Out Program to help owners of seriously damaged homes relocate beyond future floodwaters by purchasing damaged residential properties from willing owners and razing the structures so the flood-prone land would remain vacant permanently. Delaware County used the program to help affected residents move out of harm's way, with twenty-nine homeowners participating countywide and twenty-one buy-out parcels located in the Village of Margaretville; FEMA paid seventy-five percent of the pre-flood property value, New York City provided the twenty-five percent local match and agreed to hold title to the land after demolition, the final sales took several years to complete, and the county finished final demolition and site restoration in October 2000. The flood also reshaped the landscape, as raging water eroded stream and riverbanks, carried sediment, boulders, trees, and debris onto fields, roads, and homesites, blocked natural stream flow, created new channels, stirred more sediment, and altered wildlife habitat. Although stream channel migration during floods is a natural ongoing process, conflicts and property loss have followed where human activity has encroached on the floodway, and older streambank stabilization and channel straightening methods used after earlier floods are now understood to increase downstream problems by speeding water to unnatural velocities. In response, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, local highway departments, and other agencies have worked with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection on stream restoration projects in the Catskills, including a section of the East Branch north of Margaretville, to improve water quality, reduce erosion and flood risks, and improve wildlife habitat.

Margaretville, New York · United States