The city seems well on its way to turning in documentation about flooded homes in Austin to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The city was awarded a $2.5 million grant to buy the homes affected the most by flooding in 1978, 1983, 1993 and 2000.

Austin also received a state grant for $2 million, but that must be used by December 2003.

So the sooner Austin decides what homes need to be bought, the better.

But the city needed to complete extensive documentation before it could do so. Each home in a flood plain had to be evaluated based on elevations, the amount of damage, its distance to public infrastructures and the cost to relocate those displaced by floods.

Any inaccuracies in that documentation could have affected funding.

We're glad the city went through the process carefully. We're also glad the documentation should be in by the end of the month so that those homes can be bought before another flood affects Austin.