Flood Recovery, Local News
VIDEO: Father, Linn County spar over deceased son’s flood-damaged home
Posted on Nov 23, 2009 by Admin.
Darrell Langan of Cedar Rapids sits on the edge of a flood damaged farmhouse along the Cedar River near Palo on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Langan holds the abstracts for the property with the original deed dating back to 1850. Langan's late son, Kevin, lived in the home until he passed away in 2007. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
Kevin Langan bought his 38 acres of paradise soon after graduating from old Regis High School in 1977. For nearly 30 years he hunted, trapped and fished along this heavily wooded stretch of the Cedar River near Palo. In April 2007, he died there, too.
“He loved the outdoors and every part of it,” said his father and business partner, Darrell Langan of Cedar Rapids.
He and his wife, Karen, found their son’s body in the small frame house, more than a century old. He had died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
“It was tough for us,” Langan said one recent afternoon in the dooryard of his son’s home. So, too, is a dispute with the county over the home’s future.
Fourteen months after Kevin Langan’s death came the flood, which also wrecked Darrell and Karen Langan’s home at 1718 Ellis Blvd. NW. In its wake, Darrel Langan is sparring with Linn County over what he sees as his son’s legacy to family and friends.
“It’s pretty much back to nature, but I want to keep it in one piece,” he said.
The issue is the county’s need to clear non-complying structures from the Cedar River’s flood plain, an effort launched in early November with 18 sites set for demolition.
Darrell Langan of Cedar Rapids sits on the edge of a flood damaged farmhouse along the Cedar River near Palo on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Langan holds the abstracts for the property with the original deed dating back to 1850. Langan's late son, Kevin, lived in the home until he passed away in 2007. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
One is on the Langan property — a seasonal cabin heavily damaged by the flood that he’s given the county permission to remove — but Langan draws the line at his late son’s former home, one of the county’s oldest. The property’s original deed dated Feb. 15, 1850, shows the property was part of a 160-acre parcel owned by Charles R.P. Wentworth.
“It goes back a long time, and it’s survived pretty much everything that’s been thrown at it,” Langan said.
After taking on only a few inches of water in the floods in 1993 and ’95, the house saw about eight feet of water in June 2008. The flood collapsed an addition on the house’s west side, which Langan has removed. He said the remaining, original structure is sound.
“I’ve got a pretty good building here,” he said. “I’m willing to put the effort and work into it.”
Langan’s goal is to get the house back in shape for occasional use by family and friends.
“I was thinking I’d put a woodburner in here, and the old boys could come out and talk about old times,” said Langan, 71, who’s retired from the plumbing business that he and his son operated. “I’m going to make sure it’s sound.”
“If they wanted to put enough money into the building, they could salvage it,” said Brita Van Horne, Linn County building official.
The hitch: a federal requirement that any structure sustaining damage equal to 50 percent or more of its value must be elevated out of the flood plain. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency decides the county isn’t fully enforcing the rule, it could disqualify any county landowner from receiving subsidized flood insurance.
“If we didn’t do it, we’d jeopardize our ability to get flood insurance for the county,” Van Horne said.
“I don’t have money for that,” said Langan, who used his son’s flood insurance settlement to pay off the mortgage on the property. He and his wife have taken out their own mortgage on a house in southeast Cedar Rapids; they figure the Ellis Boulevard house is a buyout candidate.
Van Horne said Langan may qualify for FEMA aid for “increased cost of compliance,” something he said he’ll look into.
“It was a blow to me to tell me it would have to be torn down,” Langan said of the old house.
Langan walks a visitor over to a sapling his family planted after Kevin Langan’s death, a bald cypress selected by Karen Langan.
”It’s good for floods,” he said of the variety. “It sure survived ’em. As a family, we used that as a means of closure. I think he’s in a better place now, and I talk to him quite frequently. ”
The late autumn colors were mostly under foot now, but enough remained on the trees to give the clearing a bronzed glow.
“It’s like a big chapel,” Langan said.
This a wonderful man and a friend. Darrell will work through one more major problem he has had to indure. I will be offfering help to a very good Man. I hope the County can give a break and be able to help Darrell right away.
A break by the County? Good luck. The City of Cedar Rapids has gone out of their way to make it harder to get the ICC. My house also recieved 8 ft of water. My insurance estimate was 100% totaled, FEMA's estimate 114% totaled, Cedar Rapids estimate 39%. This put me under the 50% needed to qualify for the ICC.
I will watch your lawsuit with interest. I feel sorry for the city attorneys. Having to defend actions after the fact. They make legal by biased interpretation(sic) what is clearly outside of Iowa code on a regular basis.
I don't see a lawsuit in my immediate future. Ive already spent to much time arguing to blank faces. I was refering to a couple of news storys people will put together sooner or later. Here, let me help you out……….
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/48030582.html
news.softpedia.com/news/US-Army-Corps-of-Engineers-Found-Guilty-for-Katrina-Disaster-127457.shtml
Hope the Gazette lets it go through
Joesy keep posting about your situation, go public with your case. The new city goverment needs to address your situation. Keep people posted and also get the best lawer you know.
I wonder how our Founding Fathers would react to reading this story. The "Land of the Free"? What a farce. All these overreaching, busybody government entities should BUTT OUT and let the people use the property they own as they see fit. The place has survived 150 years without the nanny state's "help" and there's obviously no need for it now.
Pardon my ignorance, but wasn't it the nanny state who gave him the money to pay off the mortgage? So, if what I am hearing from you is correct, you would prefer that no one received any FEMA money and they should get to live by a river and face what may come so long as the Government stays out of it? I could be wrong, but I am guessing some of these folks welcomed any and all assistance they were given be it from friendly neighbors or the nanny state.
TheI don’t have money for that,” said Langan, who used his son’s flood insurance settlement to pay off the mortgage on the property flood
son’s flood insurance You pay for that out of your own pocket and it is not fema money.
Nanny state ? Flood insurance is a supplemental policy required for the mortgage. The correct thing to do is use the insurance for it's intent. Pay the mortgage off. Why can’t there be a variance for this property to be given 50 yrs to raise the building . I just think there is some way to help this family out. Ole you seem to have a hollow heart. That is so sad. I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving and fill that hollow spot.
Ok, so that explains why I said pardon my ignorance. I'm glad you think you know that status of my heart when I had some questions. Given the past history of the Gazette and missing details, I was under the assumption that no one in the area actually had their own flood insurance. So, thank you all for clearing that up. As for using the insurance money to pay off the mortgage, I guess to each their own. If my house is flooded (and it was this week) and I have insurance (Which I do), then I would use the insurance money for what it is for which is to return the house to pre-flood condition. I would not use it to pay off the mortgage and then use my own money to rebuild it. But, to each their own. As I stated in my other post, I would think a common sense exception should be granted to him. But again, thank you for knowing my heart. I'm sure you were right beside me all last Summer while I was gutting houses and wearing blue suits in hot basements to spray bleach. My house was bone dry.
The man has been through hell, he did what he felt was the right thing to do. He did his best. Don't be so focused on your self Ole do something to help this man! I do wish you a nice Thanksgiving.
In my case, the flood insurance only covered the balance of my morgage. The check was made out to the bank. Mandatory payoff.
So let's see if I can recap the story. 1) House gets flooded. 2) Takes on over 50% damage. 3) Man uses FEMA money to pay off Mortgage. 4) FEMA tells city that house either gets demolished or needs elevated out of flood plain or several other people who did not pay off their mortage won't see a dime of that insurance money. Now, not knowing anything other than what the Gazette tells me, was there a step 2.5? Where the man was TOLD the house would be demolished or need elevated or was this done after he already paid the mortgage off? If he was told, it's his fault and others who would suffer shouldn't. If he wasn't told, perhaps we should use some common sense and have exceptions to the rule. Just me two cents.
Read the story. It says
son’s flood insurance .
Read the story again "Van Horne said Langan may qualify for FEMA aid for “increased cost of compliance,” something he said he’ll look into." IT SAYS THAT HE "MAY" QUALIFY!!!! Are you that hateful and ignorant that you can't read or do you just see what you want and make up the rest of the story??
IF THE GUY WANTS TO USE HIS OWN MONEY TO REBUILD THIS HOUSE THAT I SAY LET HIM DO IT AND THE STATE NEEDS TO LEAVE HIM ALONE AND GO FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO "HELP" OUT…..
The man went through finding his son dead in the house he is trying to keep He had to find a new home to replace his home on Ellis Blvd. that flooded. He lost all his personel things in the flood as many did. He is trying to recover from the lose of his son and the property they shared in common. He paid off the morgage under all this going on with pure intent to remodel and have what is his. Any one of these events is so very hard to recover from. He has 3 all very close to each other. It is his property help him and let him rebuild. Help this man have a great holiday season. That is the correct thing to do. This is a good man, given at tough situation in his 70's, come on, do the correct thing
Ole help the man and stop thinking so much about your self
Mortgage Co. handle the claims differently, sometimes the size of the mortgage makes the difference as to who the check is written to. The house was bought in the 70's so I have a feeling the loan was nearly payed off and the check was small.