Article By Claims Journal
Rand Nolen's References
Following the recent events of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and the blog we posted on our website, Claims Journal recently released an article citing Attorney Rand Nolen on numerous occasions.
"Rand Nolen, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t forsee any further procedural obstacles that would delay trial on property damage claims that he said are expected to cost $6.5 to $13 billion."
“Now the court has told the government it must pay the folks whose property it flooded, damaged, and destroyed,” Nolen, with the Fleming, Nolen and Jez law firm in Houston, said in a press release.
“Literally, what they did when they opened those floodgates is they moved the water that was behind the reservoirs into everybody’s living rooms,” he said.
Nolen said in an interview that the evidence shows the Corps intentionally emptied the reservoirs simply because an operating manual written in 1962 told them to do so. He said the dams were fortified in the 1980s and 1990s; there was never any threat of structural damage.
Nolen said he doesn’t have to prove that the Corps erred when it released water into Buffalo Bayou, but he has gathered evidence that shows there was no imminent danger to the dams. He said the Corps’ leadership decided to open the floodgates only because the Water Control Manual written in 1962 instructs them to do so when certain threshold conditions are met.
Nolen said the Corps allowed water to flow out of the reservoirs at a rate of 16,000 cubic feet per second after Hurricane Harvey had passed. The Corps then kept the floodgates open for two weeks, increasing the amount fo damage.
He said water sat in the homes downstream from the reservoir at a depth of six to seven feet. “Any salvaging of anything is impossible,” Nolen said. “Even the studs you cannot reuse because they bow and warp and start causing problems.”
Nolen said many of the 176 lawsuits filed so far against the Corps by downstream property owners seek compensation of about $2 billion for 1,875 properties. But he said an estimated total of 8,000 properties were affected. The six-year statute of limitations to file a damage claim has not yet passed. Nolen said he expects an additional 2,000 lawsuits to be filed, which will greatly increase the amount of damages owed.
Claims Journal is a property and casualty insurance claims-specific news website. They see roughly 125,664 users a month while averaging 177,455 page views per month. You can visit the original Claims Journal article here.
To learn more about the case affecting Hurricane Harvey vitcims near the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs, click here.
