Once again I say, it’s hard to keep track of these things.
A federal judge vindicated Houston homeowners who have argued for years that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to open Addicks and Barker dam gates during Hurricane Harvey flooding — sending water into their downstream homes — was no act of God.
Judge Loren A. Smith ruled Wednesday in a test case of 12 plaintiffs that first went to trial in 2024, finding that the government’s actions amounted to a “taking” of private property and that homeowners were eligible to be compensated for the damage it wrought.
Smith’s decision said the property owners proved they flooded more than they would have if the Army Corps had kept the dam gates shut. He dismissed the government’s argument that the closure was necessary given the exceptionally devastating flood levels, saying operators opened the spigot “before an actual emergency posed an imminent danger to the structural integrity of Addicks and Barker.”
The ruling reversed Smith’s stance in 2020, when he dismissed the downstream case outright and said that the hurricane itself was responsible for the damages.
[…]
A separate group of homeowners with properties sitting upstream of the two large reservoirs also sued the federal government after flooding during Harvey, arguing that the overflowing reservoirs spread onto their properties in a way that was similarly controlled by the Army Corps’ operations. Their wins came more quickly: A lower court found in their favor in 2019, and that decision was largely upheld by an appeals court panel in December.
In the downstream case, government lawyers did not dispute that the properties in question also flooded; instead, they argued that Addicks and Barker offered an overall flood benefit to those homes. They said its detention gates prevented the worst of the area’s potential flooding, compared to how water would have spread had the infrastructure never been built.
The judge’s original ruling to dismiss the lawsuit was overturned in 2022 by the Fifth Circuit. As noted, the plaintiffs in the other lawsuit – the “upstream” lawsuit, while this was the “downstream” lawsuit – had the judgment in their favor upheld last year. Maybe this one gets appealed, maybe the Army Corps just takes their licks and hopes for the best. I suspect there may be more lawsuits as a result, but maybe not – there must be some statute of limitations? Maybe? I guess we’ll see.