More than 100 homeowners have charged in a lawsuit that officials in Sarasota County, Florida, failed to maintain a dike for years, allowing Hurricane Debby’s floodwaters to inundate homes throughout an upscale subdivision.
“Engineering modeling analysis has confirmed that without the breach of the Cow Pen Slough dike, there would have been no flooding of the interior of the homes in Laurel Meadows,” reads the lawsuit complaint, filed this month in Sarasota County Circuit Court.
Hurricane Debby grazed the western flank of the Florida peninsula in August 2024, deluging some areas with as much as 17 inches of rain over a three-day period, the suit notes. Some homes in the Laurel Meadows subdivision saw as much as 24 inches of water inside, causing extensive damage to drywall, floors, fixtures, appliances and belongings鈥攁nd forcing residents to move out temporarily.
While the subdivision is near a group of lakes, it had never experienced such flooding before, the complaint alleges.
“Although major storm events have, at times, flooded the streets in Laurel Meadows, the homes within that subdivision had never suffered interior flood intrusion as a result of those major storm events, prior to August 4, 2024,” the suit reads.
It was all because county crews failed to repair a dike surrounding Cow Pen Slough, a drainage canal owned by the county, the homeowners’ attorneys claimed in the suit. Sarasota County’s environmental utility staff noted the breach in the dike three weeks after the hurricane made landfall. But examination of LIDAR (light detection and ranging) measurements showed the breach had existed at least since 2018. Statements from county workers suggest the breach may have been there for decades.
A subsequent engineering firm analysis of the landscape showed that without the Cow Pen Slough dike breach, the homes would not have been flooded, the complaint argues.
The suit charges negligence by the county, and inverse condemnation, or a taking of the value of the homes without formal eminent domain proceedings. The county had a duty to maintain the dike and officials “knew, or should have known, of the breach in the dike along the Cow Pen Slough,” it reads.
The county has not yet answered the complaint.
The suit does not indicate the number of homes in the subdivision that carried flood insurance, nor does it indicate nor the impact that residential development may have had on flood levels.
Photo: Part of the Laurel Meadows subdivision after Hurricane Debby flooded the area. (AdobeStock)
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Flood Hurricane Homeowners
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