DEARBORN — The city announced this week that it would not be held liable for flooding damages caused by the heavy rainstorm on August 11 that impacted more than 10,000 homes. 

In a letter sent to residents last week, the city stated that it had “completed a thorough investigation” that determined there was “no basis for liability on the part of the City of Dearborn” as a result of the $200 million in estimated damages sustained that day.  

The letter went on to state that the city investigated its sewage system and determined that it had worked as designed during the rainstorm. 

“It would be cost prohibitive and fiscally irresponsible to construct and maintain a sewer system with the capacity large enough to handle this amount of rainfall without flooding occurring,” the letter said. 

Dearborn resident and attorney Tarek M. Baydoun of Meridian law Group has been vocal on the city’s positioning. This week Baydoun filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking information from the city on its investigation of the claims. 

Baydoun told The Arab American News that the city’s letter was “deceptive” in that it didn’t detail the investigation it conducted on each of the 10,000 claims made by residents.

“You didn’t check all 10,000 sewer lines and you don’t know what could’ve been prevented. You can’t make that generalization,” Baydoun said. “I don’t accept that they released a blanket denial. Maybe they could’ve made fixes that would’ve prevented 2,000 cases. We need to know what could have been done and what should have been done. “

Baydoun referenced the city’s positioning against 250 flooding claims that were made in July 2013, in which the city admitted parts of its sewage system had been defective. The city ended up paying out dozens of residents in those cases. 

Mayor Jack O’Reilly told The Arab American News that the city had fixed the glitches in its system that contributed to the floodings in 2013, when an investigation revealed there were areas of blockage.

O’Reilly  added that the city had hired a third party investigator who also concluded the city wasn’t liable for the 2014 floods, which impacted the entire metro Detroit region. 

“We had an outside firm look at our system and the system was working fine. The extraordinary amount of rain in a short period of time was the cause,” O’Reilly said. 

O’Reilly referenced a Michigan Court of Appeals case involving Ann Arbor and a plaintiff who had sued for flooding damages. The court concluded that the city would not be held liable for flood damages during a rare catastrophic rainstorm event. 

O’Reilly noted that that the amount of rainfall that occurred on August 11 would be classified as a “100 year storm event”— a rarity to see a vast amount of rain in such a shot period of time.  The amount of rainfall that hit metro Detroit was about 3.5 times greater than the amount a sewer system was designed to maneuver. 

O’Reilly said Baydoun and other lawyers who are taking initiative to seek financial coverage from the city may not have the expertise and knowledge of how a sewer system operates.  

“He is spreading a lot of misinformation and jumping the gun a little bit. He’s starting with the presumption that the city is liable and that we are ducking from the liability,” O’Reilly said of Baydoun’s stance. “The presumption is that we are not liable unless somebody can show that the city failed to do something and it was the proximate cause. “

Baydoun rebutted O’Reilly’s reference to the Ann Arbor statute, stating that the findings had determined that the resident’s house flooding had been caused by rainwater leaking through the windows, which was not the case for the majority of Dearborn’s residents. 

Baydoun argued that Dearborn residents experienced flood damages  after sewage water flowed into their basements. 

“That case actually helps claimants in Dearborn because it differentiates between sewage and flood water. That’s what happened in Ann Arbor— water didn’t back up the sewage, it went through people’s windows.”

Baydoun said he’s representing more than 200 families in Dearborn who are seeking financial coverage from the city and that he doesn’t plan on charging the residents for his services.  

He added that he isn’t certain if a lawsuit against the city would be the next likely step. He would like to obtain more information from the city’s investigation against its sewer system before moving forward.

In the meantime, the city is urging residents to file for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at www.disasterassitance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362. The deadline for applying is on December 14.

O’Reilly said the city has been prompting residents to file for assistance from FEMA for months now, which has been referring applicants to the U.S. Small Business Administration loan.

That loan is generally awarded at just a 2 percent interest rate for up to 30 years.

“That’s an unbelievable deal,” O’Reilly said. “People who suffered extensive damages can borrow enough money to even improve their basement.” 

So far, 7,444 Dearborn residents have applied for FEMA. That figure is the second largest in the metro region, far behind Detroit,  where more than 70,000 residents filed. 

Other cities with more than 1,000 residents filing for FEMA include Highland Park (3,291), Hamtramck (2,974), Redford (1,475), Inkster (1,404), Dearborn Heights (1,356) and Southgate (1,345).

In Dearborn, It’s not clear what the overlap is between the number of residents who filed claims with the city and those who filed claims with FEMA. 

There may also be a large number of properties that have gone unaccounted for, as many sought financial assistance through their insurance coverage.  O’Reilly noted that several residents had received assistance upwards of $5,000 from their insurance companies.

Baydoun estimated that about 1 in 3 properties in Dearborn were impacted by the August 11 rainstorm. He is calling for Dearborn’s city council to take initiative by requesting another independent investigation.

“I think the city council should call for its own independent investigation, because the administration has not been forthcoming,” Baydoun said. “There is not a clear understanding on this issue which has caused a lot of complaints from residents and I think the city council can play a role here. They should do what the residents addressed them to do. It’s their job to protect the health and safety of the residents.”