A federal appeals court has ruled that the government is liable for damage to homes that flooded upstream of the Addicks and Barker dams after Hurricane Harvey unleashed more than 50 inches of rainfall on the Houston region in 2017.
A three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled unanimously earlier this week that the government “was aware or should have been aware” that the dams were not enough to protect nearby communities.
