Demolition of flood damaged homes begins today

CEDAR RAPIDS - The biggest change in decades begins bright and early for one flood-damaged neighborhood in Cedar Rapids on Monday.

Demolition will start on 281 homes whose owners accepted a voluntary buyout offer from the city. Over the next three months, many unrepairable homes in this flood zone will disappear from the landscape.

But if you think neighbors in the hardest-hit part of the Time Check neighborhood are sad to see it all begin, think again. TV9 spoke with a number of people in the area on Sunday and those who repaired and rebuilt are out of patience with those who didn't.

One owner of a repaired home, Kathy Swanson, said "I was so tickled when I heard they were going to do it--it's a long weekend--I saw them bring in the backhoe and I was like, Monday morning I want to see this start happening."

Swanson said the only disappointing part of the upcoming demolition is the fact a neighborhood home in dire need of repair isn't on the initial list. But several others on her block are.

D.W. Zinser Company, the contractor for the city, plans to start demolition work at 7:00 a.m. Monday morning. A severely damaged home at 905 Ellis Blvd. N.W. is first on the list.

Crews plans to remove about 30 unrepairable homes a week on average. The first week or so will involve demolishing homes on heavily traveled Ellis Boulevard--so drivers may want to seek alternate routes.

When the work is done, some streets will have homes missing here and there. But others may have all the homes on an entire block wiped out.

Stefan Sheffield is buying a rehabilitated home next to the first house on the list awaiting demolition. Sheffield agreed those homes that won't come back should be removed.

"It'll be more space for us just as long as they don't leave a big mess there," Sheffield said.

Another woman, Delores Weeks will see four homes on her block disappear. She said "I don't want junk houses sitting around, but then what have we got when everything's gone?"

The answer, at least for now, is green space the city may eventually use as part of a long term flood protection system.

-Dave Franzman, KCRG-TV9