Town of Wolf River residents face restrictions on home repairs after historic flooding

“For many of them, it’s their permanent residence. So after the flood occurred, these residents have nowhere to go,” said Jerry Seubert, who owns a cottage in the flood-affected area in the town of Wolf River. “They’re stuck in RVs, and they’re living in borrowed RVs. And if they can’t get back into their homes, where are they going to go?”

Federal and state regulations limit homeowners’ abilities to repair flood damage in flood-prone areas. In these areas, you can’t spend more than 50% of your home’s value on improvements or flood repairs.

For example, if you’ve already spent $100,000 to repair your $200,000 home, you can only make general maintenance repairs and nothing more.

“There are kind of tight restrictions on what kind of improvements and how much you can spend on improving property,” said Winnebago County Executive Gordon Hintz. “We don’t allow people to rebuild an entire property in a floodway or damaged area where we’re going to have to spend money where it’s going to increase flood insurance.”

Essentially the homes are considered unsafe, because they’re prone to repeated flood damage. Since the homes were built under previous rules, homeowners don’t have to just tear down their homes, but they can’t exceed that 50% threshold on renovations and repairs to flood damage.

“The 50% rule is in place to help mitigate future damages, to keep their properties from repetitively getting damaged over and over again,” said Sarah Galster, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Floodplain Management Program Coordinator.

In Waupaca County, where most of the flooding occurred, it’s adopted a very specific exemption to this rule, called Wisconsin Act 175. It exempts homeowners from that 50% maximum threshold if they raise the foundation of the home.

It’s expensive to do, but it provides a path forward for homeowners. Wolf River homeowners hope Winnebago County follows suit.

Winnebago County supervisors say they’ll begin discussions to adopt the act in July, though it may be four to six months until anything is adopted.