What Mayor Mike Duggan would change in southwest Detroit water main break response

• Amid immigration fears, language barriers and more, community groups were key in the water main break response, Mayor Mike Duggan said.
• More than 300 residents have filed claims for losses. The deadline to file notice of a claim is April 3.
• Officials will discontinue the emergency hotline for the Feb. 17 incident and switch to their usual water department line, 313-267-8000, on Monday.

There are some things Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and his fellow officials might do differently if another water main broke and flooded a city neighborhood as badly as one did in February. But with the expectation that the necessary work to get people back in their homes will be done next week and the promise that officials will cover all uninsured damages, city leaders on Thursday celebrated ahead of the looming six-week mark since the Feb. 17 break in southwest Detroit.

Duggan, who is now seeking the governor’s seat, said he didn’t think it was the wisest political maneuver when shortly after the water main break the director of the city water department announced hopes to have everyone back in their homes within six weeks.

But five and a half weeks later, Director Gary Brown has largely met that goal with the help of nearly a dozen community groups, Duggan said at a news conference at Rowan and Green streets near the site of the break.

“It’s been really an extraordinary experience,” Duggan said of that joint effort.  

Where the southwest Detroit water main break stands

As of Thursday, 15 families remained in city-covered hotel rooms, the mayor said. That’s down from a height of 206 households.

The remaining homes without the basics like furnaces for residents to return are facing other issues like a need to address sewer lines and asbestos abatement, Duggan said.

The city also already started issuing checks for damage and loss claims from residents, the mayor revealed. Residents are being asked to file claims by an April 3 deadline at detroitmi.gov/dwsd.

 There were 400 homes in the area and 378 claims have been fielded so far, Duggan said. Of those, 12 have gotten their checks.

What Duggan would change about southwest Detroit water main break response

If there’s one thing Duggan would have done faster, he said it would be connecting with some 12 community organizations that made the turnaround time possible. Those include Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development, or LA SED, and the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.

But now Duggan has their contact information, said Jessica Ramirez of community group Detroiters Helping Each Other.

“When you need it, you reach out and I’ll use my big mouth and I’ll round up all the other groups,” she said.

Ramirez called for a better emergency response plan involving the community groups and their trusted translators. Language barriers with the Spanish-speaking community was an issue, she said.

Another challenge in the aftermath included the high anxiety in the immigrant community, Duggan said.

Some groups got on TV to report issues with the city response that needed to be fixed, Duggan said.

“They were right. … They weren’t doing it because they were trying to hurt, they were doing it because they were trying to help,” he said.

Another thing that might look different should this happen again: how quickly both the city and its partner in water administration, the Great Lakes Water Authority, respond.

The authority was not contacted until several hours after the break, according to the timeline offered by officials previously.

While Duggan said that when he first started his tenure, the water department didn’t have 24-hour responses, he also noted the break was not originally believed to be in an authority-maintained line, but a city one.

Duggan, while still lauding the emergency response, said he believes that next time that much water is flowing in city streets, officials will know to get both the city and Great Lakes Water Authority out to the scene right away.

Why Detroit and GLWA are paying for southwest Detroit losses

Duggan also gave his reasoning for why the city was so quick, along with Great Lakes Water Authority, to offer to cover uninsured losses from the flooding.

Simply put, there would have been class-action lawsuits, and the two entities would have spent years pointing fingers at each other at who was to blame, he said.

“It wouldn’t have done these neighbors any good,” he said.

Two lawyers and the city have noted how often governmental immunity protects municipalities and utility groups from liability in these instances.

Brown and Duggan said the coverage was the right thing to do.

They are also going further than the immediate repairs. On Thursday, Brown said one-year warranties will be offered for the work done and appliances placed.

Scrap metal and recovery after southwest Detroit water main break

At least one check was already in the mail for Deanna Dooley, a resident who spoke at the news conference alongside the mayor.

Some work remained, like to address damage to her porch, but her furnace and water tank have been replaced and more work was taking place Thursday, she said. She also said, to laughs, that the incident helped clear out 20 years of stuff in her basement.

“We do again have our lives back to almost normal,” she said.

Not quite back to normal was Tammy Brock, whose voice could be heard over the speakers at the news conference for a brief while.

Brock’s business, a food truck called Tammy’s Patties, was filled with ice and water during the flood.

She was looking for scrap metal to sell to help tide her over on bills before she came across the news conference, she said. She’d hoped to speak with the mayor after speaking to him in recent weeks.

 She hasn’t been able to work since the water main break and hasn’t been able to find another job since then to pay her bills either, she said.

She thinks the city response to the flood has been “good,” she said.

Her furnace and water tank have been replaced. But there’s still repairs needed in her home and officials offered her a settlement for her food truck that wouldn’t nearly cover that loss, she said.

Dominique Pantoja, a project manager for DWSD, was asking for photos of the damage and promising to look into the concerns before a Free Press reporter walked up. A spokesman confirmed the settlement matter was under review.

He also confirmed that resident's claims of lost wages would be reviewed for reimbursement.