Nearly Three Years After Coyote Creek Floods, Lawsuit Drags On

While many welcomed the wet weather this week, for some people the heavy rain brought back unpleasant memories.

"Now I tend to be paranoid when it rains a lot," says Teresa Pedrizco, whose home in San Jose flooded after Coyote Creek spilled over its banks in February 2017.

Before the flooding, San Jose residents had little to no warning of the rising waters. About 14,000 people were evacuated and some had to rescued from their homes by boat. Hundreds of public and private structures were damaged to the tune of $73 million.

And for some, the recovery process has been slow. This September, as part of a deal with the Santa Clara Valley Water District, about 200 victims settled their claims and received up to $5,000 in partial compensation for damage done to their homes and property.

Lifelong San Jose resident Luis Rosas, who lives in a mobile home park along Oakland Road with his mother and brother, was one of those people.

“I didn't think this day would come,” says Rosas, whose home has flooded three times since 1997. “This is the only time they've ever actually given us money for repairs.”

Most who settled with the water agency are from low-income and immigrant communities, according to a community group that helped file the claims. All of them filed claims without a lawyer.

While those who settled, like Rojas and his family, are moving on, other flood victims chose not to settle for the amount offered. They now feel stuck in a never-ending legal battle trying to recoup their losses. Many of those victims argue the city should have done more in the first place to prevent the flooding and that $5,000 won't begin to cover the damage done to their properties.

Attorney Amanda Hawes filed a lawsuit two years ago against the water district, Valley Water, and the city of San Jose on behalf of about 150 victims. The lawsuit claims the city and Valley Water should have taken more preventative action to protect them from a flood.

Hawes alleges that both the water district and the city knew flooding along Coyote Creek was imminent days before it occurred and yet they didn’t do enough to prevent it.

“A lot of clients have lost some degree of confidence in their representatives, in the agencies whose job is to protect the welfare of the community, protect the health of the community,” says Hawes.

Pedrizco, the San Jose homeowner, is part of the lawsuit. She remembers rushing to get sandbags that day, after her mother called her to say their neighborhood was flooding. But the sandbags were no match for the amount of water flowing out of the creek.

“The basement was totally full of water, about a foot and a half of water,” says Pedrizco. “[It] was enough to ruin our home.”

Pedrizco lives in San Jose’s Olinder neighborhood, near Coyote Creek. She shares her single-family, one-bedroom home with six other family members. The house suffered severe flood damage, but they still live there — even though the foundation and walls have cracked in places and there’s mold in the basement.

“That’s the only place we can afford to live,” says Pedrizco. “So whether it is safe or not, we're there.”

Pedrizco estimates she’ll need at least $60,000 to fix the foundation and thousands more to fix the rest of the house.

Some flood victims, including some of those suing, received financial assistance from the city through Catholic Charities of Santa Clara or through individual donors. But Pedrizco says she hasn’t seen a penny of help from the city.

“I get really upset,” says Pedrizco. “The city has presented themselves somehow to say ‘Oh yeah, we help flood victims,’ but they haven't.”

However, the lawyer, Hawes, says the settlement with the other flood victims, even for smaller amounts, is a step in the right direction. “It's a good sign that the water district is willing to start making some reparations for harm done,” says Hawes.

In addition to compensation for flood damages, Pedrizco and the others in the lawsuit say they want accountability from the city and the water district, and they want to know a similar situation will not happen again.

Valley Water and San Jose declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has publicly apologized for the city’s emergency response. Since 2017, the city adopted a joint emergency action plan with the water district to improve flood response. Valley Water has repaired levees and is in the planning stages of a Coyote Creek flood protection project. The water district began holding regular public meetings to discuss the project this month.

But Pedrizco says she feels like the city and the water district are dragging their feet to compensate those suing.

“They don’t have to create more obstacles for us. We already live in the flooded home,” says Pedrizco. “We are continually suffering.”

A mediator was brought in this summer to help resolve the lawsuit from Pedrizco and the 150 other households. Hawes says if nothing comes from the mediation sessions, the case could go to trial in early 2021.