Some victims of last spring’s flooding in Alberta are still waiting for emergency funding from the province to repair badly damaged homes that were left in unlivable condition.

Thousands of residents of High River were displaced from their homes last June when the Highwood River spilled its banks.

In the community of Highwood Heritage Estates, about 40 per cent of the homes were severely damaged, while more required minor repairs.

Not all homeowners have completed the necessary work because they are still waiting for funding. Others have completed the repairs but have yet to be reimbursed.

Tim and Wanda Dawson assumed their mobile home would be fine because it sits about five feet off the ground. But when the floodwaters receded, their home was in fact unlivable, with mould about three-quarters of the way up the walls.

“I stood there and I cried for half an hour, you know,” said Wanda Dawson. “All the blood, sweat and tears.”

John Perenski said he needs to fix the skirting and insulation around his home.

“Maybe we’ll just bank the snow up,” Perenski said. “That’ll do for a while. Until next spring, anyway.”

Cassie Newell paid for the necessary repairs to her home, but has yet to receive any funds from the government.

“It was pretty costly,” Newell said. “You have to do it right or else you’ll freeze during the winter.”

Many of the residents receive the same answer when they call the provincial government to inquire about the status of their claims.

“The last time I spoke to them it was in the final stages,” Newell said.

But the final stage does not always mean that a cheque is in the mail.

“The final stage is when they get the information they need about the funding available to them,” government spokesperson Tom Neufeld told CTV Calgary.

Neufeld said the government is still working on getting all displaced residents back into permanent accommodation, “and hopefully they can get back into the home or the apartment that they used to live in.”

The Dawson family pegged the cost of rebuilding their home at $35,000, and because they are certain they will not receive that much in government assistance, “it’s not feasible to rebuild.”

With a report from CTV Calgary’s Rylee Carson