Saturated earth in western Colorado Springs took days, weeks and months to form landslides that have ruined about 26 houses, and resolution of the homeowners’ woes, likewise, is moving at glacial speed.
“I’m very frustrated because I’m making two mortgage payments, and I don’t see any activity,” said Linda Carroll, who abandoned her landslide-socked house in Lower Skyway and moved to the city’s northeast side.
, and homeowners were told last year that they could see the buyouts by May. But Bob Jardon, a homeowner in Broadmoor Bluffs, said, “Don’t spend it before you see it.”
The homeowners face layers of bureaucracy, from the city’s Office of Emergency Management to the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and all the way up to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA ultimately is expected to pay for homeowner buyouts. First the properties must be analyzed for historical significance, inspected, appraised according to federal guidelines and demolished. The land then must be left forever bare, creating swaths of open space.
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