Adding it up: Federal officials tour flood-damaged Cedar Rapids buildings

A little cloud of men and women with notebooks moved through the Cedar Rapids Public Works building, examining wall and window frames, pointing at the ceiling and scribbling on clipboards.

They were public infrastructure specialists from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Iowa Department of Homeland Security, coming down the home stretch on the city's long road to getting funding to repair its flood-damaged buildings.

“What we really want to demonstrate is transparency to the public,” Flood Recovery Director Greg Eyerly said.

The city can only submit money for projects that withstand future audits by the federal government as being clearly flood-related, Eyerly said. The city must avoid two pitfalls that would hurt future generations: leaving them with either a big debt or facilities that were rebuilt incorrectly.

The city has submitted 540 projects to FEMA for funding, and so far, 377 projects worth $156 million have been approved.

Some of the biggest rebuilding projects, though, await approval. FEMA has OK'd about 30 percent of the roughly $500 million city officials have applied for to repair buildings like City Hall, the Paramount Theatre, the Ground Transportation Center and the Central Fire Station.

The walk-throughs like the one at the Public Works building Tuesday will be the final inspections before the city, state and FEMA settle on the scope of work required for each project. Final dollar figures won't emerge until bids are awarded.

“Our whole objective is to get them every legal dollar we possibly can,” said Todd Dolphin, FEMA's public assistance branch chief for this region.

The city's goal is to have all 540 projects submitted to FEMA by Oct. 1, Eyerly said, with the hope that the agency will return final decisions on them by Oct. 31.