San Jose: Victims of 2017 Coyote Creek flood to receive payments

Jun. 20--Closing a chapter in one of the Bay Area's most serious natural disasters in recent decades, Silicon Valley's largest water agency has agreed to pay the claims of roughly 200 families and individuals who suffered losses in the devastating 2017 Coyote Creek flood.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District says it will settle all the cases filed against it that involve claims submitted by flood victims for losses of $5,000 or less.

The district, a government agency based in San Jose, said in a statement that the move "is the most responsible, efficient and economic method to get the claims resolved without engaging in litigation."

The flood, which occurred on Feb. 21, 2017 following heavy atmospheric river storms, caused an estimated $100 million in damage and forced the emergency evacuation of 14,000 people, most of them residents of neighborhoods in and around downtown San Jose. It was the worst flood in San Jose since 1997.

At least 180 other households that suffered more extensive losses -- including damage to the houses, and the loss of furniture, computers, cell phones, clothing and vehicles -- are part of a combined lawsuit against the water district, the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County. The next hearing in that case is scheduled for July 19 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

On Thursday, attorneys for the victims called the district's settlement the right decision.

"I think it's a good step by the water district in starting to take some responsibility to address the people who have suffered," said Amanda Hawes, a San Jose attorney representing 163 households flooded in the Rock Springs and Olinder neighborhoods, along with the South Bay Mobile Home Park and Golden Wheel Mobile Home park. "I hope it's the start of a longer process to bring these matters to resolution."

Neither San Jose nor Santa Clara County has settled any of the cases against it.

The roughly 200 claims that the water district is settling were filed mostly by low-income residents, many of them Vietnamese-American immigrants who did not have insurance, and for whom in some cases English was not their first language. They were not represented by attorneys.

"This is good news. It will help a lot of people," said Hang Ho, office manager for Vivo, the Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation, a non-profit community group that helped flood victims file the claims.

Roughly 80 percent of the Vietnamese-American residents displaced in the flood have returned to their homes, she said, but others had to move out of the community, uprooting children from school.

"I was very scary for them," she said. "They had half an hour to get out of the house and when they came back their homes were full of water. Some were very depressed. Others don't want to move back because they are scared it will happen again."

The flooding occurred when Anderson Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Santa Clara County, filled to the top during drenching storms. Water poured over the spillway and caused Coyote Creek, one of the two main waterways that run through San Jose (the other is the Guadalupe River), to surge over its banks.

San Jose officials came under sharp criticism for not evacuating residents earlier. Water district leaders said in public meetings and statements afterward that they had notified the city of the danger.

The judge in the case, Peter Kirwan, has so far ruled that victims can proceed with several claims of action against the city and water district: creating dangerous conditions, and causing a nuisance and inverse condemnation, meaning the taking of private property without payment.

The judge ruled that the county does not face inverse condemnation, and has not ruled yet on whether it faces liability for public nuisance. The discovery phase comes next.

If the case goes to trial, that could occur next year.

"There's a high probability of settlement," said Jeffrey Hare, another attorney for the victims. "God forbid we have another big rain storm before then."

The city and the water district announced numerous reforms after the flood. The water district kept Anderson Reservoir's water level lower than normal heading into the winter of 2018 and 2019, to provide more room. The district also began plans to raise levees and build flood walls in some low-lying areas of Coyote Creek.

The city hired a new emergency services director, purchased mobile loudspeakers, stepped up efforts to clear debris from portions of Coyote Creek it maintains, and, with the water district, put in place a new color-coded system to better coordinate flood warnings during storms.

But critics note that the water district's plans to rebuild Anderson Dam to improve its earthquake safety -- which also would modernize the spillway and enlarge the outlet pipe, reducing flood risk -- are years behind schedule. And the district does not have the more than $500 million needed to provide full 100-year flood control for the portion of Coyote Creek through downtown

"With climate change, we have to be very concerned that very, very significant environmental impacts will be occurring more frequently and with greater clout," Hawes said. "We need to work together to do all we can to minimize the possibility, rather than retreating to the same old promises we've heard before."

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