A day after the Houston area endured a punishing rainstorm in the area, a group of 2017 flooding victims who sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showed a federal judge from Washington, D.C., how Hurricane Harvey harmed their properties upstream of the Barker and Addicks reservoirs.
Amid pattering rain, a convoy of six vehicles at midday departed from the federal courthouse in downtown Houston on a 90-mile field trip to the flood pools west of the reservoirs, with a law clerk, court reporter, a U.S. marshal and seven lawyers in tow. At 12 stops along the route, Senior U.S. Judge Charles F. Lettow — wearing a sports coat and Wellington boots — trudged through muddy berms and newly refurnished living rooms and heard testimony from residents, business owners and an engineer who literally had the key to the floodgates.
The trial is the first chance Harvey victims have had to make their case that the federal government should compensate them for damages because, they say, officials knowingly used their property to detain water in an effort to prevent catastrophic downstream flooding in the city of Houston. The trial focuses on 13 test properties west of Houston in Harris and Fort Bend counties that experienced various degrees of flooding in the days following Hurricane Harvey.
Thousands of people in the upstream area have signed onto lawsuits, and lawyers expect more to join. Lawyers for the litigants estimate that 10,000 properties were inundated in the flood pools causing more than $1 billion in damage.
Another group of plaintiffs who owned property downstream of the reservoirs will have a separate trial at a later date.
Lettow, who serves on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, traveled from Washington for the two-week upstream trial. The specialized D.C. court presides over so-called takings claims, in which parties accuse the federal government of taking possession of their land. The trial will determine if the government should be held liable for the actions of the Army Corps during the flood. If the judge finds the federal government responsible, the matter of damages will be assessed in a later proceeding.
Court of Claims judges usually travel to the region where a case is brought and it is not unusual for a judge to do a site visit in order to understand the complexities of the geography and gauge — in this instance literally — the lay of the land.
The tour began with an off-road trek along the narrow earthen crest of the Barker dam, 30 feet above the reservoir. Participants exited the convoy of vehicles, tramping through sticky, squishy mud to look down at the floodgates. An egret waded in the pooled up brown water. A warm wind ruffled the judge’s hair as he swore in Capt. Charles Ciliske, the Houston project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who oversaw Addicks and Barker during the historic storm.
Ciliske, clad in a full military uniform, told the judge he operated the structures during the entirety of the storm. It turned out he had the key to the gates in his pocket. A court reporter in jeans and Crocs, in from Arizona for the trial, jostled between the lawyers and witnesses, capturing testimony on a handheld digital recorder.
As a bird wobbled in the breeze overhead, the judge — gripping a notepad in his hand — sustained an objection from Bradley L. Levine, a Justice Department lawyer.
From the Barker Dam, the tour convoy traveled to the auxiliary spillway on the northwest side of Addicks. Lawyers scraped their shoes along the roller compacted concrete and slapped at fire ants climbing their ankles as Ciliske explained how the spillway worked.
The tour entered the gated community at the Lakes on Eldridge, and visited the stately clubhouse which took on four inches of water, according to Sue Strebel of the homewners association. Next, the group visited Kurt and Jean Wind’s home at the end of a cul de sac in Twin Lakes. Jean held her new puppy Zoe while Kurt recalled wading through waist deep water to access the house amid the flooding. When he got there, the electricity was still on, he said.
“We were lucky we weren’t electrocuted,” Kurt said, explaining how he and his son managed to cut off the breaker.
The field trip stopped at the West Houston Airport, a private facility that Woody Lesikar purchased in the 1970s. During testimony from Lesikar and his daughter inside the terminal, lawyers took in the aroma of fresh popcorn on hand for pilots at the facility. Easy-listening jazz played in the background as the Lesikars explained that eight inches of water had built up during the storm.
Toward the late afternoon, the tour group stopped by Juan Carlos and Ann Giron’s home in the Shadow Bend portion of Cinco Ranch. Ann thanked the judge for coming by and showed the way into a living room with concrete floor and walls stripped to the studs. A piano sat at an awkward angle in the middle of the room. The pantry was empty and an array of belongings were stacked up on an island in the kitchen.
“We ran out of money,” Juan Carlos said. The Giron’s driveway is taken up by a FEMA trailer, which remains their home for the time being.
The convoy of vehicles pulled up beside the courthouse as night fell. Testimony is set to resume Thursday.
For a longer version of this article and continuing coverage of the trial, please visit HoustonChronicle.com.