Millions of dollars are helping save homes, which leaves many asking who’s going to pick up the tab.

The state of South Dakota has spent more than $10 million fighting this year’s flood. Of that, nearly $1 million has gone to sandbags alone.

Local residents are also making serious investments, and while there may be opportunities for reimbursement, officials are saying, for the average homeowner, FEMA may not be your best option.

“Some of the personal investment that people have made, there also is FEMA programmed for that, but it’s generally not very good at reimbursing things. And so I don’t want to hold out, you know, give false promise to people about what can be done there, but I can assure you that we will be scrubbing every agency and every program to determine what assistance may be available to the people of South Dakota who have been so adversely impacted,” says South Dakota Republic Senator John Thune.

This story was reported by Jacob Heller. You can contact him at: jheller@kmeg.com