On Dec. 3, 2007, Broadview resident Linda Lord was driving home from Christmas shopping. It was raining hard and she thought she better check her basement, which had flooded a few inches in the past. This time, Lord discovered her television floating face down in 18 inches of sewage and storm water.

More than two years later, Lord and fellow Broadview residents are still unhappy with the state of Broadview’s sewer system and the way the city has handled their claims for damages from the 2007 storm.

Lord and Ellerie Caine, whose basement filled with 11 inches of sewage and storm water during the 2007 flood, are organizing neighbors to fight what they see as unfair and negligent practices by the city in dealing with the causes and effects of the flooding.

Nearly five inches of rain was dumped on Seattle Dec. 3, 2007. It was the second rainiest 24-hour period since Seattle started keeping records in 1891 and meteorologists described it as a 100-year storm.

Broadview residents at a May 28 meeting of neighbors organized by Lord and Caine laughed at that characterization.

“It’s a 100-year storm that happens every seven to eight years,” Lord said.

The city maintains that the exceptionality of the 2007 storm largely caused the flooding and not a failure of the sewer system.

According to an April 14 letter to Broadview Community Council President Dale Johnson and the Broadview Task Force on Storm Water from Bruce Hori, the director of the city’s Risk Management Division, “the storm so far exceeded city design standards, there is nothing we could have done to prevent the flooding that occurred.”

Trish Rhay, director of drainage and waste water systems for Seattle Public Utilities, said that even with unlimited funding and resources, the city would not be able to entirely protect residents from a storm that large.

“Really, no system works well when you have an extraordinary event,” Hori said.

There was concern among neighbors at the May 28 meeting that new high-density developments in the area without infrastructure upgrades have maxed-out the major sewer mains.

Jack Israel, who lives on Dayton Avenue, said the main sewer line is too small to handle the new developments and will back-up during a storm, causing residents’ pipes to back-up as well.

According to studies, the new developments have not had a negative impact on the sewer mains, Seattle Public Utilities spokesperson Andy Ryan said.

Martha Burke, planning manager for Seattle Public Utilities, said toilets, especially the newer toilets in the developments, don’t drive overflow. Storm water is the major factor, she said.

Rhay said the city is continuing to investigate problems in the Broadview sewer system and work with citizens.

“We haven’t forgotten about this problem,” she said.

There were problems across the city during the 2007 storm, said Seattle Public Utilities’ Frank McDonald. Some areas are still having problems with smaller storms, and the city is concentrating on areas where the sewer system should be able to handle a small amount of water versus areas, such as Broadview, that will never be able to handle the amount of water seen during the 2007 storm.

Ryan said the city is conducting a sizable study of the entire sewer system with results coming out later this year. The city wants to find out how the entire system is working before they move forward on any large scale projects, he said.

According to a February 2008 letter from Hori to Cain, more than 200 claims for damages from the city stemming from the Dec. 3 storm were filed across the city. Hori said 23 of those came from Broadview.

As of the end of May 2009, the city has paid 13 of those claims and denied four with the remaining six pending, he said.

Hori said the four denied claims were dismissed because it could not be proven that the city’s sewer main was at fault.

Five of the six pending claims are waiting for the claimants to either accept or reject the city’s offer of 50 percent of the claim, Hori said. The sixth is awaiting further information.

He said he believes the city’s offer on the remaining claims is adequate and the city hopes to settle and avoid a lawsuit.

“We try to be fair,” Hori said. “And, if we owe the claim, we will pay it regardless of the amount.”

Broadview residents, in a April 2008 letter to Mayor Greg Nickels and the March 2009 letter to Hori disagreed. According to the March letter, the city’s responses to neighbors “suggest a pattern of trying to avoid legitimate claims.”

The letter takes issue with the city denying claims because it was an unusually heavy rain storm and because the claimants could not prove a fault with the city’s sewer main. It also alleges that the city denied some claims at first then partially paid them after they were appealed with no additional facts.

In the letter to Nickels, neighbors said the city deserves to take more than partial responsibility for the extensive damage caused to neighborhood basements by city sewage.

“This was caused by the city. Period,” Broadview resident Sid Andrews said at the May 28 meeting. “They’re trying to say it’s our fault. The only thing that is our fault is living on Dayton Avenue.”

Residents would like to see the city presumed liable for all damages during a storm because there was widespread system failure.

“Why not 100 percent of claims, not 50?” Cain said at the meeting.

Hori responded to neighbors’ concerns in an April 2009 letter. He said information was gathered from claimants, from Seattle Public Utilities records and staff, and from independent engineers to determine whether or not the city was negligent.

According to a city ordinance, it is the responsibility of the landowner to maintain side sewers on their property.

If the city was only one of the factors leading to damages, then the claim was paid, or offered, in part, he said in the letter.

The city only retried claims cases when new evidence was present, Hori said.

“I do not agree with your assertion that the city has improperly tried to avoid paying legitimate claims,” he said in the letter.

The city is not an insurer, Hori said. He said residents should talk to insurance companies if they are interested in full protection against flood damage.

Residents are still working on ways to get the city to pay the money they feel they are owed for damages, loss of property value, and the disruption the flood has caused in their lives, and they are feeling left in the lurch.

Cain said it feels like the city is being difficult and dragging their heels hoping Broadview residents will grow weary or lose interest.

It is easier and cheaper for the city to fight and wait and partially pay claims than to fix the problem and put in a new sewer line, Lord said.