East Providence officials and residents described a federally supported buyout program that acquired 13 homes in the Luther’s Corner neighborhood after repeated flooding, including damage in 2021 from Hurricane Ida.

The buyouts, funded after the city applied for a grant flagged by Senator Reid’s office, aim to remove repeatedly flooded houses from the floodplain and restore the land to absorb stormwater, Mayor Bartossova said. Residents who sold told meeting participants the move ended recurring danger and anxiety during storms.

"My name is Beth Galligan. The flooding was pretty bad. I remember looking out the window, like I said, at, like, 3 in the morning when my neighbor called to move our cars, and there was just, like, waves in the street. It was crazy. I've never seen anything like it," said Beth Galligan, a resident who recounted evacuating her vehicle with her children during a flood.

Mayor Bartossova said the city funded the acquisition of 13 homes in Luther’s Corner and that those properties are in the process of being demolished. "We're looking at what's known as the Luther's Corner neighborhood in East Providence Rhode Island we funded the acquisition of 13 homes here that are in the process of being demolished," Bartossova said. She added the program offers homeowners "fair market value for the property, not at the flood stage, but also but actually the day before the flood occurred," and reiterated, "So they're getting the value of the home as if the flood had not happened."

Officials and residents described both practical and emotional reasons for the buyouts. Bartossova said many homes were built in the floodplain and have flooded repeatedly; removing structures and restoring the area to open space should retain stormwater and improve water quality. "The neighbors are gonna have a beautiful park like setting, and the community is gonna have a way to kind of retain some of that stormwater," she said.

Residents described the human impact of recurring floods. "I was getting my car out of there and moving a couple blocks down. It was, like, a scary moment where, like, I could feel my car was starting to float. So it was scary not knowing, and, you know, it's not fun having to drive through floodwaters with 2 kids in the car," Galligan said. Another resident recalled unexpected hazards in floodwaters: "One time from the floods, there was a crayfish like this big under my tire. It was like a foot long under the tire of my car. So I'm glad that we're out of that situation now, and the program gave us that option."

The meeting record indicates the city applied for grant money after being made aware of the opportunity by Senator Reid's office; the transcript does not specify the exact federal program name or the total grant amount. The mayor described the buyouts as intended to make affected homeowners whole and to return repeatedly flooded land to open space, which city officials said could reduce maintenance costs tied to water quality.

No formal vote or ordinance is recorded in the provided transcript excerpts about the buyouts; the statements are presented as descriptions of work that has been funded and is underway.