Woodlands residents sue companies over design of subdivision that flooded in Harvey

More than 300 homes flooded in the Timarron and Timarron Lakes area of The Woodlands during Hurricane Harvey. More than 300 homes flooded in the Timarron and Timarron Lakes area of The Woodlands during Hurricane Harvey. Photo: Handout:: Stanley Okazaki Photo: Handout:: Stanley Okazaki Image 1 of / 131 Caption Close Woodlands residents sue companies over design of subdivision that flooded in Harvey 1 / 131 Back to Gallery

Jim Diemer said the rain still gets to him and his neighbors months after Hurricane Harvey left his subdivision in The Woodlands devastated.

"We can't move on with our lives," Diemer said Thursday. "When it rains... panic attacks set in within our families."

Diemer, 58, is among nearly 500 Woodlands area homeowners suing land developers over the design of the Village of Creekside Park, Timarron and Timarron Lakes subdivisions, which flooded severely during Harvey.

The civil lawsuit filed this week in Harris County district court accuses The Woodlands Land Development Company L.P., the Howard Hughes Corporation and LJA Engineering Inc. of allowing inadequate home elevations in the Village of Creekside Park, Timarron and Timarron Lakes despite decades of flooding from nearby Spring Creek.

The suit says the engineering company and the developers were negligent and accuses the developers of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

"The evidence in this case is going to show that the developers and the engineers in this case, ignored historic water flow patterns and built a subdivision of homes that were not properly built to withstand the type of floods that this area experiences," Annie McAdams, an attorney on the case, said during a Thursday press conference.

A representative for Howard Hughes Corporation and The Woodlands Land Development Company declined to comment. A representative for the LJA Engineering wrote in an email that the firm had not been "made aware of the lawsuit and did not have any comments at this time."

The widespread flooding from Hurricane Harvey has prompted dozens of lawsuits across the area by thousands of homeowners against a number of developers, engineering firms and local governments.

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At least 485 homeowners are represented in the lawsuit, which claims that the companies "knew or should have known" about five previous floods in the area. The companies built in a 500-year flood plain and didn't take measures to reduce the likelihood of flooding, the lawsuit alleges.

About 350 homes were flooded in the Timarron area, and Diemer estimates that each homeowner has spent more than $200,000 to rebuild and make repairs.

Diemer, who purchased his home in 2013, said minor flooding two years ago during Memorial Day caused his neighbors to start working with the local Municipal Utility District to see what solutions could be made to resolve flooding problems in the area.

Then, Hurricane Harvey came to the region and severely flooded the area.

"We thought we were buying Ferraris and what we got is a used car that has a lot of problems," Diemer said.

The suit says developers began building the subdivision even though they knew about an October 1994 storm that dumped 20 to 30 inches of rain throughout Montgomery County and caused nearby Spring Creek to reach levels 10 feet above normal elevation.

"Despite knowingly building in a 500-year flood plain, Defendants did not develop and build homes in manner that put them outside of a 500-year flood plain to reduce the likelihood of flooding," the lawsuit states.

Diemer said he has already spent more than $240,000 in repairs and still has contractors inside his home months after Harvey. His wife, who runs teaches piano out of their home, was devastated when her grand piano was destroyed in the storm.

"We've lost a good part of our lives in this process and its agonizing," Diemer said.

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Stanley Okazaki and his family gave little thought to flooding when they relocated from Los Angeles to The Woodlands.

"We bought the home in 2013 and moved in in 2014," Okazaki said of his home, valued at more than $300,000, in The Village of Creekside Park in The Woodlands. "Flooding? This was all new stuff to me. I did inquire if (the home) was in the flood zone, and I was told no."

The Memorial Day Flood in 2016 — which also pounded the Houston area — brought floodwaters from Spring Creek to within inches of his front door and garage. Harvey left the first floor of his home filled with water and the family trapped on the second floor. Now, after months of activism with his neighbors, he's joined in on the lawsuit.

"We decided to work together as one team," Okazaki said of the lawsuit. "It is a way to get justice for what was done wrong. A lot of people suffered."

Bernie Otten and his wife also joined the lawsuit. Now in their third home in the township, the couple's plans for retirement have been dramatically altered since their home in the Village of Creekside Park flooded during Harvey. They believe developers knew about the area's probability of flooding.

"We always trusted what The Woodlands stood for," Otten said. "We thought these people had done their due diligence. What we learned is, they didn't do what they needed to."

Catherine Dominguez contributed to this report.