Property buyouts to cost $48.5 million

New York State will use roughly $48.5 million of the $1.7 billion in recently approved federal community development block grant funds to pick up the non-federal share of property buyout costs incurred after tropical storms Irene and Lee. The non-federal share comprises 25 percent of the expense.

The state announced last week that roughly 1,143 homes in 19 counties have been processed under FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The program buys up properties that have a history of flood damage and which have sustained damage worth more than half the value of the property.