House floods as a result of road work - What are my options?

[Gina Dowdy]

Hi All!

So here's my dilemma. I purchased a house in 2008 in Haughton, LA. It is not in a flood plain, did not require flood insurance and had no history disclosed of ever flooding previously.  There is a small creek behind the property that crosses the road just north of the property.  In approximately 2014, the parish took out the bridge where the creek crosses the road and replaced it with a large culvert.  Since then, the house has flooded 3 times, twice in 2015 and once this year.  It has come very close to flooding on other occasions.  Since there is a culvert there now instead of the bridge, during times of excessive rain, the culvert cannot handle all of the water and it backs up on one side, the same side as my house.  The same height at which the water spills over the road, relieving the backed up water is the same height at which it comes into the house.  Since it's only flash flooding, it's usually gone soon and cleanup can begin.  The good thing about the house is that when it does flood, it's rather easy to clean up.  It has tile and vinyl flooring only.  And it has a sunk-in living room where the water just collects.  30 minutes or so with a shop vac and a mop and it's good as new.  The first time it flooded in 2015 I contacted the police jury and they just said they would send someone out to look at it.  Never heard anything else.  The second time it happened, the general area was already saturated and flooding and it was a major crisis for many people (who were in a flood plain), not just me. 

I moved out of the home in 2016 and it has been a rental property since.  Because I moved out of state I had a property management company managing it until this month when the last tenants moved out and I decided to sell.  I just found out yesterday that it had flooded again in May.  The property management company neglected to inform me of that since the tenants just cleaned it up and no damage was done. 

But now, I have to complete disclosures in order to sell my house.  If I were a potential buyer, there's no way I would buy this house knowing that information!  So my question is, do I have any legal recourse for (1) the decreased property value as a result of the flooding incidents that the parish caused and (2) to force the parish to address the issue?