FLOOD BUY-OUT

At a town hall meeting Monday night, District 5 Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry told more than 100 residents of the Bristol Park and Ashbury Hills neighborhoods that the county will be applying for a Federal Emergency Management Agency hazard mitigation grant that would give the county federal funds to buy flood-prone properties from homeowners along Eleven Mile Creek. The creek has overflowed its bank multiples times over the last 30 years. After the 2014 flood the County used FEMA funds to buy out 17 properties that flooded. County officials said it will likely take a few years for FEMA to approve the latest grant.