HOUSTON – A woman residing in northwest Harris County has reached out to KPRC 2 for help due to the non-stop draining issues she has been having in the backyard of her home.
Linda Hardy told KPRC 2 reporter Rilwan Balogun that when she and her family bought their home in 1996, there was a farmhouse behind them with a small stock pond where drainage ran south away from the home toward Mills Road. According to Linda, in the early 2000s the property was developed, it was improperly elevated and made into a townhome complex, which has flooded near her home ever since.
“[Army Corps of Engineers] came out and told them to fix it, but they did not fix it properly and every rain has led to erosion,” Linda said to Balogun. “The building behind us has no drainage except through our yard and into the back of our home.”
As a result of the flooding, Linda said the home’s foundation has failed and the driveway is washed out.
“The street in front of us floods heavily so despite thousands of dollars in drainage we can’t always drain it. The county is working on that, supposedly,” Linda explained.
Linda Hardy is desperate for help, saying she and her spouse are 64, disabled and caring for their 35-year-old daughter with autism. She said that with each day of rainfall, the flooding gets worse.
“Today their retention wall washed out running the mud and massive amounts of water into our yard,” she said. “We need help. I don’t know what else to do.”
Linda says they have tried repeatedly to get the issues resolved but without luck.
“Hired a lawyer, sent letters, dealt with the HOAs,” she said. “And the people that own the HOA, or the property behind us, will not respond to us.”
She is afraid her family will lose their home because of the flooding.
“Something has to be done because we’re going to lose our house. The street floods and the backyard floods and we can’t drain it. We’re just an island,” she said to Balogun.
Linda said she reached out to the Harris County Department of Engineering for help.
“I couldn’t get a hold of anybody in the county to do anything. Harris County Engineering initially, we had them come out. They said there was nothing wrong with the property. I made them come out again. They came out the second time and they said, ‘This was built wrong. No setback lines and they all run into Mills Cove,’” Linda explained.
An email shows that the Harris County Department of Engineering sent cease letters to the townhome’s HOA, however, Linda says nothing more came of it. She even spoke to Commissioner Tom Ramsey in Commissioners Court.
“He was very entuned to hear what I had to say. Let me speak over the time limit. And he was on it by the time we were coming home, he was calling,” Linda explained. “They immediately jumped on it and started looking at the drainage in our subdivision at Mills Cove and Mills Bend. That was determined to be collapsed drains, some other problems the county is going to fix.”
At Commissioners Court, Balogun gave his card to Linda and told her to feel free to give him a call if the problems were not fixed. On Wednesday, he received an email.
“The retaining wall gave way yesterday and water came pouring through the fence and you can see there’s mud in our yard and everything from the side. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
A lawyer said it could cost Linda Hardy and her family $100,000 to sue. That’s in addition to the thousands of dollars she’s reportedly spent on drainage.
“We’ve done everything right. You’re supposed to drain the property from the back to the front. They drain it from the back to the back,” Bill Hardy, Linda’s husband, said.
The Harris County Department of Engineering sent the following statement to KPRC 2:
“The subdivision of Mills Walk was built in the late 1970′s and the subdivision of Willow Park Village was built in 2004-2005. Both developments were reviewed and permitted in compliance with Harris County regulations that existed at the time of plan submission. Also, both were inspected for compliance. A resident first contacted the Harris County Engineering Department Permitting Office in October 2021 with complaints of drainage issues being caused by the Willow Park Village neighborhood. Our inspection team visited the property and determined that there was no violation of Harris County regulations. Our staff visited the property again recently and found no permitted or unpermitted violations. Also, to date the Permitting Office has not received any other complaints on Mills Cove relating to drainage issues.” -- Harris County Department of Engineering