The small riverside town of Mosby, Missouri, is disappearing one house at a time.
After years of frequent flooding, many of its homeowners have taken voluntary buyouts funded largely through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A little over half the houses will remain after the demolitions are complete.
The buyouts are intended to lessen future flood-related costs by demolishing homes that otherwise could keep receiving federal disaster aid or taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance.
More buyouts are likely after devastating flooding this year in the Midwest. And even more could be necessary nationwide as climate change leads to rising seas and more intense rainstorms.
But buyouts are not always embraced. Some Mosby residents turned down the offers because the price wasn’t enough to afford a new place somewhere else.