FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): Neither Fort Wayne nor Decatur will be getting federal help for buying homes located on floodplains this year.

Both cities had been getting grants from FEMA on a yearly basis for a while now, but not this year, as the government has denied their applications.

Rod Renkenberger of the Maumee River Basin Commission tells the Journal Gazette the denial raised a “red flag”, after only one floodplain property acquisition grant in all of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota was approved.

This year FEMA doled out about $740,000 in acquisition grants… while just last year, Fort Wayne and Decatur received a combined total of almost $677,000 themselves.

The two cities were hoping to receive enough cash to remove 40 houses from the floodplains of the St. Marys River and Junk Ditch.