Since it is an interstate highway, wouldn’t the federal government share some responsibility?
Posted on 12/17/2023 10:14:27 AM PST by CFW
Richie DeVillier steered his boat around floating carcasses. His son leaned over the edge of the boat, holding a calf's head above the floodwaters as they tried to lead the shell-shocked animal to higher ground.
Many of the living cattle they had found so far would not survive the next few days. Their bodies were already bloated from standing in water for so long, the coarse black hair sloughed away in patches.
The DeVilliers lost about 60 of their 300 cows and calves, plus seven horses.
[snip]
"We were artificially in the bowl that's created by the highway construction," he said. "God didn't do that. Man made that."
In January, the Supreme Court will hear DeVillier's case and consider his argument that Americans like him should be compensated when state governments damage their property.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Also, these agencies will take actions to change the flow of water or build roads in low-lying areas and then blame the resulting flooding and damage on "climate change".
State needs to make the rancher whole.
That is so hideously wrong.
DeVillier's family has lived and ranched in Winnie, Texas, since the early 1900s when his great-grandfather homesteaded the land. In all that time, their 900 acres had never flooded. Water naturally flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico, DeVillier said.
But then around the turn of the 21st century, the Texas Department of Transportation renovated Interstate 10 along the ranch, widening the highway, raising it a foot and a half and adding an impermeable, nearly three-foot-high concrete barrier along the middle of it, according to DeVillier and his lawyers at the nonprofit Institute for Justice.
The ranch turned into a lake when Hurricane Harvey hit. The DeVilliers used a tractor to help their neighbors get through the floodwaters. Knee-deep water filled their house.
Another special Texas winter edition for your perusal.
As always, please FReepmail me if you want on or off the Texas Ping list.
Blessings, and stay warm!
They should do it without even having it heard by a court.
Yep, totally agree.
Federal law requires development, approval, and implementation of comprehensive plans to deal with drainage, runoff, erosion control and other potential impacts before permits can be issued for even relatively small construction projects that involve grading/earth movement.
Either this highway project didn’t have a plan for handling runoff properly or someone failed to do what was required. Whoever entities that was should pay for the ranchers’ losses if they were on the land legally. The individuals who let the cattle drown via callous negligence should be waterboarded and thrown into a manure pond.
But, but, they are experts, doncha’ know! Just ask them! /sarc
Is this another debacle, whether through damage like this - dirty, backroom deals that cost the unsuspecting & unknowing taxpayer millions or billions - or the politicians insatiable appetite to let more and more businesses come into the state and destroy it?
Governors and legislatures in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, etc do so much for JOBS that they’re letting their states be destroyed and demographics flipping.
Either this highway project didn’t have a plan for handling runoff properly or someone failed to do what was required.
Or the government completely ignored all of that to do what they want. Knowing that they do t have to pay for lawyers and the people do.
This is nothing but the government taking advantage of one of its ‘citizens’ and daring them to fight back.
Just remember, this is the same state that allows a cartel town to exist 60 miles north of Houston and nothing is done.
“Governors and legislatures in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, etc do so much for JOBS that they’re letting their states be destroyed and demographics flipping.”
You have that right! Governor Kemp of Georgia is the worst. He is constantly bringing in new companies and bragging on his “growing businesses” in the state. He travels to Asian countries and soon afterwards a new foreign company is locating here. However, they bring their own workers for the highest-paying positions and provide few actual new jobs for the rural areas. The new workers vote Democrat.
However, the cost of infrastructure, road repairs, upgraded utilities, and the tax-breaks, falls on the local tax-payers as property values go up and tax bills increase. It causes home prices to rise to the point that locals are pushed out of the housing market.
You nailed it.
I really hope that more people see things like you do and when he runs for Senate, he gets sent packing.
bkmk
TXDOT once had actual engineers designing the roadways and infrastructure.
For them to not see that the raised roadway would become a dam was a dam* shame. They could have easily put in drainage under the interstate but people who don’t know what they are doing make amateur mistakes.
That section of highway always had a flooding problem. The detour around it starts at the Texas Louisiana border and goes way north to Shreveport and meanders back down toward Houston. I avoided it by waiting a few days. It must be a 400 mile detour.
It needed to be fixed. The proper fix would have cost hundreds of millions and the environmental permits would have been held up by the tree huggers indefinitely.
I suspect some settlement. The quibbling is just the amount. It is an Interstate highway. I’m surprised the feds aren’t named. Ukraine money wouldn’t be missed.
EC
You damned right the state should pay.
When TDOT pushed a four land monstrosity upon our land they desrupted the natural runoff of our farm. Luckily we are an upland farm so the water damage is minimal now but the scouring of our creeks is destroying them, taking valuable farmland away every year and dumping it into floodplains below where a subdivision is built. Tried to warn the residents about what’s headed their way but they don’t care so if don’t feel sorry for them when they get flooded out when the 100yr flood that comes every twenty years happens.
Since it is an interstate highway, wouldn’t the federal government share some responsibility?
Interesting and informative post. Interstate highways were/are “funded” by federal government, but are owned and maintained by the state in which they were built. The fhwa is primarily an administrative mechanism/agency to distribute federal tax dollars to the various states for maintenance of interstate highways. Ownership, and liability lie with state, that is why suit is in state, and not federal court system, is my guess/understanding. Feds have some overview requirements, but state DOT’s is where controlling design standards, maintenance programs, and construction specs are issued and enforced. Engineering design and construction contracts likewise are with state DOT, not feds.
Dam right.
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