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Demolition begins on flood-damaged Waterloo homes
Homes damaged in 2008 flooding on Sans Souci Island in Waterloo are being torn down.
Twenty houses in the island were turned over to the city in the buyout program authorized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A city contractor has started tearing down houses on Sans Souci that were flooded by the Cedar River. City planner Aric Schroeder told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that demolition will could continue until next spring.
Jim Hackett was among the homeowners displaced from the island. He now lives across the river from his old home.
Hackett says it's tough to see his old neighborhood torn down. He'd lived there for 40 years and he says every house on the island holds a memory for him.
The Sans Souci Island neighborhood in Waterloo as seen Sept. 29, 2008. Most of the 20 homes in the island community were heavily damaged in the June flood. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
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