Media Credit: Craig Handley Alfredo Hernandez points to where waters from Onion Creek rose to on Nov. 15, 2001 as he and his son Andrew sit on the steps of their South Austin home Sunday afternoon. Their home, listed in a 100 year flood plane, has flooded 4 times in the last 32 years. Hernandez is grateful that FEMA has finally stepped in with relief aid but is concerned about getting a fair price for his home.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the city of Austin $6.2 million to buy out homes located in the Onion Creek flood plain.

The city will use the grant to purchase up to 118 homes in the southeast Austin flood plain along the western side of the creek, and residents living in the neighborhood near East William Cannon Drive and South Pleasant Valley Road will be offered buyouts.

"With this big check, we're going to make a lot of lemonade out of some very big lemons here in this community," said Betty Dunkerley, the city's mayor pro tem. "We also will be able to provide park space and green space for this community, and that's where the lemonade comes in."

Many of Onion Creek's residents live in mobile homes, and the neighborhood has flooded four times since 1974. The most recent flood was in November 2001, in which fast-moving water and thick mud damaged many of the homes.

After conducting a feasibility study on Austin's flooding problems in 2002, the city's bond election advisory committee concluded Austin had a $600 million flooding and drainage problem.

"We have a $600 million problem on our hands, and that was the amount of funding it was going to take to engineer all of the projects and for all the buyouts that were associated with Austin's drainage problems," Dunkerley said. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and Gov. Rick Perry's office backed Austin's application to FEMA's hazard mitigation program to help relieve some of the city's large flooding problem, she said.

FEMA's hazard mitigation project provides flood-prone households an opportunity to move out of harm's way while saving tax dollars from required flood repair and cleanup, said Philip Parks, FEMA's branch chief.

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