Agreed, its why cities generally avoid building reservoir systems. Too many liability issues. Someone always loses.
Interesting. I think it's clear that the engineers knew those homes would be flooded since an evacuation was ordered for those homes. There has to be precedent on whether this counts as the government utilizing eminent domain and has to pay a fair price for the homes or if it's an extension of a natural disaster.
Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't know where St. Peter was. Thanks. You're right. They have a SILLY claim. But still a claim, nonetheless. The fact of the matter is that this was the WETTEST, WORST, and MOST DESTRUCTIVE hurricane or cyclone ever. If you put this into a comparison perspective and put this over New Orleans, over New York, or just about any other large metropolis or megaplex city, I bet you anything that without a reservoir like Barker, those people have no chance and drown in the thousands, unlike the few here in Houston. I would chalk this up as a win and praise these engineers and city leaders for their quick thinking and major calm in this catastrophe. I'm 1/2 mile from the area where it's still flooded and I'm lucky nothing happened to my home, but at the same time, I'm one of those that's grateful our city didn't have so many peeps die. These people suing might think they have an argument... but they don't... because none of them have the experience or knowledge that the Army Corps of Engineers and meteorologists do. I'm more than sure they will get some few thousands of dollars... which will be seen as a "win"... but... it will be just "hush hush" money. p.s. - I think this discussion deserves its own thread.
My understanding is that one side of homes would be flooded. Either the dams release the water and flood downstream homes, or they don't release the water and flood upstream homes while risking overflow. It's a big catch 22. My question is whether the builders disclosed that the downstream home developments were at risk for a catastrophic flood. We shouldn't be building in flood plains, but if we do, home owners should be informed of the risk.
There certainly were mandatory evacuations ordered for reservoir areas. They came around my area and put red ribbons on the stop signs in mandatory areas and yellow ribbons in voluntary areas.
Well the point of their lawsuit is to recover damages from the release. I think even they would acknowledge that the release was necessary, but that doesn't preclude them from compensation anyway. The 5th amendment says everyone is entitled to just compensation if their property is "taken," so even if the release was the right thing to do (which it clearly was) I still think these property owners have some right to compensation. Just because they bring a lawsuit doesn't mean they are saying the government did "wrong," just that they are entitled to something as a result of that action.
One of my co-workers lives in the area near West Park and 99. Her home and most of her neighbors only flooded after the waters were released. They're trying to get compensated, mainly so they can get a fair value for their home, and move out. Most are talking about moving. She mentioned she bought in 2001 or so, and doesn't believe the flooding risk was disclosed. Also, she only recently purchased flood insurance, meaning it wasn't required for her. Looking at the Harris County Flood Plain map, it doesn't appear that they were in the 100 or 500 year flood plains. I think that's why you're seeing lawsuits. A lot of those people don't have flood insurance, and might make too much to get assistance from FEMA (do they have income caps?). So they're taking an alternative route. I think they have some sort of claim, but I don't know if they have a "cost to repair" claim, or a "cost to buy out" claim, which should be significantly different. It may depend on if most of the homes are still structurally sound and able to be repaired.
Exactly. My apartment complex at Deerwood / Beltway 8 had a mandatory evacuation once the first floor units started flooding (last Tuesday or Wednesday, I think?) We left three days before; you never know where water will travel. We were veeeeeeeeeeery lucky, though. Buffalo Bayou is normally less than 100 yards away. That won't be true for awhile as the water slowly recedes due to releases from the reservoirs.
At least you are not on the ground floor, but seriously if there is any way to get out, please do so. You could be trapped in place for weeks. This is bad.
Dude just go to the airport and wait for any standby you can get. It's not worth waiting it out till your potential flight tomorrow which may get canceled and then having to wait out Irma in your condo.
Typical SwoLy-D calling out an obvious typo. Lazy grammar nazi can figure that out if he wanted to You're not too bright if you thought about that yet couldn't figure it out even with google. Dude you type in peter Island BVA and google will even correct it for you . Now can you figure out what the typo is.
Water naturally flows downstream. The government did not choose it to rain enough to flood those properties. Government did not redirect water to the area or create an adverse condition (i.e. take property) versus conditions without dam. Government's dam held back as much water as technically feasible (i.e. made the situation better as it limited the damage). Dam operations did not cause the flood as it would have flooded worse downstream without it.
This right here. The members of this suit are not saying the wrong decision was made. They aren't claiming any negligence or malice, basically they are saying a decision was made, the right decision, that effective condemned their property out of necessity to save more property. As a result the people who made that correct decision owe them compensation. Unlike other cases of this type, this one actually has the strongest legal basis. The only argument AGAINST their claim for compensation that I can see is the potential that if there were no releases the reservoir would have failed and those same homes would have flooded anyway.
What is JJ Watt going to do with this money? I don't think he realized it was going to become this big. A lot of people are trusting him and distributing 30 million dollars is not a small task. Look at all the backlash the red cross is facing.
