19 Shockoe Bottom firms sue city over Gaston flooding
SPECIAL REPORT: Anniversaries of Katrina & Gaston
Flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston five years ago was the fault of the city of Richmond's inept operation of its sewers and negligent maintenance over decades, a lawsuit filed by 19 Shockoe Bottom businesses charges.
Gaston dumped a foot of rain in just a few hours on Aug. 30, 2004, sending a wall of water raging through the Bottom and causing flooding across the area. Eight people died in the city and its suburbs during the storm.
The lawsuit seeks at least $25 million in damages for the businesses, and asks for $350,000 in punitive damages to be awarded to each of the 19 businesses.
City spokeswoman Tammy D. Hawley said she couldn't comment on the lawsuit because no one in the city had seen it.
The plaintiffs' lawyer, in filing the suit, asked that it not be served on the city. The lawyer, Tommy Baer, would not say why.
No hearing date has been set yet.
"The city has been unwilling to take care of the problem. We feel Shockoe Bottom is still at risk of flooding." said Michael Ripp, one of the plaintiffs who owned the Havana '59 restaurant at the time of the flood.
Scott Poates, owner of the River City Diner, another plaintiff, said he couldn't comment on why he sued.
The lawsuit alleges that the city allowed debris to clog its sewers and retention basins and let a critical sewer gate rust shut, blocking one outlet for water to escape from the Bottom.
The suit says the city had left its 50-million-gallon Shockoe Retention Basin full of water before Gaston hit, despite knowing for days that the storm was headed for Virginia.
The lawsuit alleges that city officials waited until more than three hours into the storm to open a gate that allowed the massive East Gravity Outlet culvert just south of the southern end of 17th Street to drain floodwaters into the James River.
It further alleges that officials waited an hour or two after that to open gates that allow two large sewers to drain into the river. One was the main sewer draining the northern half of Richmond, which runs a bit to the west and parallel to the 17th Street Farmers Market. The other runs a few blocks to the east and drains 65 acres in the Bottom.
The city was unable to use its Dock Street pumping station to get water out of the Bottom during Gaston because it had not flood-proofed the building, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleges that the city ignored and concealed the impact of changes to its drainpipes and sewers for decades..
"Well before Gaston, the city was aware its sewer system was inadequate to handle an extraordinary storm," the lawsuit says.
Smaller floods in 2003 and 2006 showed the sewers of the Bottom were badly clogged by debris, the lawsuit alleges.
In the past three years, the city has spent $20 million on drainage improvements. Some of the work involved cutting new, larger street drains in the bottom, but it also reconfigured connections between major sewers to avoid overloading the main sewer draining 65 acres of the Bottom.
It has also cleaned out a retention basin in the Shockoe Valley north of the Bottom, which the lawsuit alleged the city had allowed to become filled with silt and debris since 1968.
The business suing are: Bottom's Up Pizza; River City Diner; Havana '59; City Inc.; O'Brienstein's Inc.; 17.5 Uncommon Café; Kathy Emerson; 17th & Shockoe LLC; Cary & Shockoe LLC; Market Slip Commercial LP; Railroad Y LLC; 1705 East Main Street Associates; Jackson Warehouse; S&S Construction; Main Street Realty Inc.; Historic Housing LLC; Pine Alley Lofts LP; SWA Construction Inc.; and Sky Management Inc.
David Napier, owner of the Old City Bar in the 1500 block of East Main Street, said he considered joining the suit but declined because he felt his losses were less than other businesses suffered. Napier, who is president of the Shockoe Bottom Neighborhood Association, also said he believes the city has been trying to solve problems in the Bottom.
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress @timesdispatch.com.
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Reader Reactions
Again, Shockoe Bottom was not a designated flood plain prior to Gaston. There was no reason to have flood insurance because the area was not designated as being in a flood plain. Since Gaston, the maps have been redrawn and Shockoe Bottom is a designated flood plain, as it was prior to the construction of the flood wall.
I suspect that the lawyers waited 5 years because people tend to forget details of an event. Even if the storm sewers were clean as a whistle and bone dry prior to this unusual storm, with the amount of water that fell in such a short period of time, the sewers could not have prevented the damage. For those that have not yet figured it out – Water flows down hill, if you do not want to risk getting flooded, do not locate at the bottom of a hill, and if you do, Deal with it! The word “Bottom” in Shockoe Bottom is there for a reason.
The businesses may well have legitimate gripes, but I call shenanigans over the fact that they waiting until the last weekday before the five-year anniversary of the storm. I’m not a lawyer but I’m willing to bet that five years is the statute of limitations on when you can file for damages.
Assuming this is true, you’d think the reporter would have picked up on it. Even if it isn’t, the reporter should still have explained why this lawsuit is coming so late.
They already raised taxes with the new Stormwater Utility Fee.
http://www.richmondgov.com/departments/publicutilities/stormwater_faqs.aspx
I think the City, mother nature and the businesses are all to blame.
Mother Nature because she caused the catastrophic event by stalling the storm system over the city, the City for not properly maintaining the drainage system and the business owners for flooding the sewer system with grease/oil and other things that shouldn’t be put down drains (which has been an issue) as well as not having flood insurance if they didn’t have it.
“Common Sense” has the right idea. If people insist on locating in flood zones, they should have to pay extra for the privilege. In a totally free market, that would happen—in fact, insurance would be so onerously expensive they’d locate on higher ground.
That’s how things are supposed to work. Instead we have government-sponsored flood insurance so that people feel free to locate in danger zones and—surprise!—the taxpayer pays for it.
Sure, sue the taxpayers. We all know they’re chumps.
how is it NOT the city’s fault? businesses pay taxes on income and pay sewer fees to fix problems like this. if i my drainage backed up because my county couldn’t clean them after knowing full well it is clogged, and my house floods, you better believe i would sue.
we all know how inept the city is… image how lazy public works is. bunch of lazy people collecting a paycheck while sitting back doing nothing.
Hope the city raises the heck out of there taxes then to recoup there loses from settlement. Either that or the “tax-paying” citizens of Richmond will be stuck with that burden. I’m assuming insurance has already took care of there damages since there are back in business… Someone always looking to place blame or lawyers looking for a buck.
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