HOUSTON (AP) — A trial started to determine if residents deserve compensation after their homes and businesses were flooded by two reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Floodwater surrounds the First Baptist Church after torrential rains pounded Southeast Texas following Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey causing widespread flooding on September 3, 2017 in Orange, Texas. (credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The two-week trial in Houston federal court, which started Monday, is focusing on 13 flooded properties serving as test cases to determine whether the federal government would be liable for damages.
Residents allege their properties became storage facilities used by the federal government to hold water from the two dams run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice, representing the federal government, say flooding from a storm of Harvey’s size was “inevitable.”
Harvey caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas and flooded thousands of Houston-area homes.
