Demolition will start on 281 homes whose owners accepted a voluntary buyout offer from the city of Cedar Rapids, IA. Over the next three months, many unrepairable homes in this flood zone will disappear from the landscape.

D.W. Zinser Company, the contractor for the city, plans to start demolition work today. A severely damaged home at 905 Ellis Blvd. N.W. is first on the list.

Crews plans to remove about 30 unrepairable homes a week on average. The first week or so will involve demolishing homes on heavily traveled Ellis Boulevard--so drivers may want to seek alternate routes.

When the work is done, some streets will have homes missing here and there. But others may have all the homes on an entire block wiped out.