Highway Construction Flooded Their Homes; The State Says They’re Not Responsible

In an article for Inside Climate News, Lee Hedgepeth describes how restrictive deed covenants attached to residential properties in Alabama limit residents’ ability to file actions against the state related to flooding.

“The covenants, released by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) in response to a records request by the Southern Environmental Law Center, show that agency officials have been aware of residents’ flooding concerns for years.” Yet residents of Shiloh, a historically Black community, say flooding in their ara began after a 2017 expansion of Interstate 84, which elevated the highway and caused flooding in adjacent properties, displacing residents for months.

When Shiloh residents sought to recover the costs of the damages, they and their attorney agreed to a settlement that, allegedly unbeknownst to the residents, included a restrictive covenant that prevents them or future residents from filing claims about flooding. “The situation in Shiloh recently garnered nationwide attention when Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited in April, part of a tour of communities confronting histories of infrastructure decision-making that subjected some residents, who often live in communities of color, to shoulder disproportionate harms from pollution, flooding and abandonment.” For now, Shiloh residents continue to call for increased accountability on the part of ADOT, which says it will try new measures to mitigate flooding and is considering offering to buy out the affected homeowners.