The court stated that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “was aware or should have been aware” that the Addicks and Barker dams would flood nearby properties.
HOUSTON — There is new hope for some Houston-area homeowners whose properties flooded during Hurricane Harvey.
A federal appeals court ruled this week that the U.S. government is liable for flood damage to certain homes upstream of the Addicks and Barker dams, siding with homeowners who argued their properties were inundated because of how the reservoirs were managed during the storm.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 and stalled over the Houston area for days, dumping historic amounts of rain. The deluge filled the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, which were designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect downtown Houston from flooding.
Homeowners upstream of the dams have long claimed their homes flooded because the government released the water from the reservoirs onto their properties through what is known as a flowage easement, even though the government does not own the land where the homes are located.
Erich Schroeder was among those homeowners. Floodwaters entered his home, causing extensive damage that required flooring and sheetrock to be replaced.
“It came in not just through the doors but through the weepholes in the brick,” Schroeder said, adding that the flooding was completely unexpected. “That’s what was really frustrating. I mean, certainly in this day and age, we all have to expect that Mother Nature is going to do what it’s going to do, and we got to somewhat live with it, but unquestionably, the government built that dam to flood this area without owning this land in the area.”
After a years-long legal battle, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of homeowners who sued the government, agreeing they are owed compensation.
In its decision, the court stated that “the Corps was aware or should have been aware… that the flood pools in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs would at some point exceed the government-owned land, inundating private properties.”
The ruling directly affects six homeowners, including Catherine Popovici.
“I’m very happy about it. I know this has taken years in the making, but I always felt that we had a justified claim that basically the government took our property through a flowage easement. These homes were built in a reservoir, and that was never communicated to us, ever,” Popovici said. “The dam and the reservoir was filling up, and our homes effectively, were part of the reservoir, which is something that we never knew.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the decision could have far-reaching implications, potentially opening the door for thousands of other homeowners to seek compensation.
“All of them can rely on these rulings and the law that the appellate court confirmed to say, ‘Look, if I get flooded upstream, I’m entitled to some sort of payment.’ And they can rely on the rulings for guidance on how to get that payment,” said Daniel Charest, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs.
While the government has the option to appeal, attorneys for the homeowners do not believe that will happen.
“The government can seek what’s called a re-hearing en banc, which is to ask all of the members on the court whether they want to affirm this or not. That’s usually a very high standard and pretty rarely granted, but it’s a thing that the government can do,” Charest said.
KHOU 11 reached out to the Department of Justice for a comment regarding its potential next steps in the case, but we received no reply as of Wednesday evening.
For now, the next step is determining how and when homeowners will be paid. But that is a timeline that remains unclear.
“I want to get justice for all of these people involved, whose homes were flooded and destroyed,” Popovici said.
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