Lake Oswego retirees flooded, battle City Hall

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (KOIN) — After a week of heavy rain, the temperature in Portland reached 58 degrees on November 6, 2023, with about three-quarters of an inch of rain throughout the day. That morning, Gary Vuchinich and his wife, both in their 70s, were at their home in Lake Oswego.

Around 9 a.m., he noticed water rushing and pooling outside his home. He soon discovered water spewing from the pavement and shooting up out of the city’s storm drain. The maintenance team at their housing community called the City of Lake Oswego at 9:13 a.m. and got no answer. He said they called again at 9:17 a.m. to report the water main break.

Bob Moore of Bob’s Red Mill dies at 94

Records obtained by KOIN 6 News show the City of Lake Oswego said they got to the site by 10 a.m., then began “throttling” the water around 10:20 a.m.

The broken water main was permanently patched 3 hours later. However, by 11 a.m. Vuchinich said his home was already ruined. During the 4 hours before the water main was repaired, thousands of gallons of water gushed from the ground — pouring down the hill and into his home. The damage exceeded $100,000.

The restoration company reported using hazmat suits due to the level of contamination, saying “This is the definition of sudden and catastrophic.”

‘City ignored us’

Plastic sheets block the upstairs because they had to gut the entire lower level of their home, losing their bedroom, bathroom, living room and storage area.

“It’s been a construction zone since November 6,” he told KOIN 6 News. “We’re constantly reminded that the city just basically ignored us.”

He and his wife filed a claim with the city. Lake Oswego denied their request for help. The city’s insurance provider said: “The City had not been working on this pipe and had no expectation that the pipe might rupture. There is no evidence to suggest that City was negligent in maintaining the pipe or responding to the rupture. The evidence leads us to believe that our insured is not liable for your damages.”

Vuchinich is flabbergasted.

“It’s unbelievable. The city that’s supposed to protect you and provide you with these services has really failed,” he said. “I’d like the city to honor our claim and to pay us to rehabilitate and redo our downstairs — the damage that they did, take responsibility for it and fix it.”

Fighting City Hall

He went to City Hall and asked them to reconsider. But Vuchinich said leaders told him they didn’t have a legal obligation to help him.

“When I asked Joe Buck, the mayor of Lake Oswego, and Megan Fallon, the loss manager for the City of Lake Oswego, what kind of assurances could give us that this wouldn’t happen again? They said, ‘We can’t give you any assurance that this won’t happen again,'” Vuchinich said.

The pipe that failed was 54 years old, installed in 1970, according to city reports. City officials told him most pipes should last 80-100 years.

After all this damage to his home, Vuchinich said the City of Lake Oswego told him it has no intention of replacing it.

Vuchinich has now threatened to sue the city. His lawyer writing in a court action notice:

City employee statements on site the day of the rupture indicate that the water main may have been leaking for some time, which suggests potential negligence by the City. In addition, the Vuciniches are considering the extent to which the timing and nature of the City’s response to the rupture may have exacerbated their damages. Lastly, the Vuciniches have been informed that the City has agreed to fund repairs to a privately maintained road damaged by the rupture.

We reached out 3 different times over the course of a month to the city’s public affairs coordinator — asking to talk to leaders about the water main break.

Police investigate deadly stabbing in SE Portland grocery store parking lot

Each time they responded with an email saying they relied on a outside insurance company to make the decision for them. The city also said they could not comment on individual claims or cases.

‘Moral obligation’

No one from the City of Lake Oswego would speak with KOIN 6 News on camera about their decision not to fix the Vuchinich’s home. Email correspondence obtained by KOIN 6 News show conversations among city employees after they learned of the Vuchiniches intention to sue — but first they redacted nearly every word in those emails before releasing them.

The Vuchinich’s house is not in a flood zone and therefore isn’t eligible for flood insurance. And even if they were eligible, insurance likely would have only offered about $10,000 in relief.

When a water main broke in Northeast Portland in 2019, it severely damaged 3 homes. Originally, the City of Portland’s insurance denied those claims. But Mayor Ted Wheeler later came out and said, “Though we don’t have a legal obligation to fix this, we have a moral obligation to.”

Vuchinich said Lake Oswego “has a moral responsibility to us and to anyone else that is damaged by infrastructure that’s falling apart.”

Portland made those families whole. But so far, Lake Oswego has left Gary Vuchinich and his wife high and dry.

“What I’d say to anybody out there is this can happen to you,” he said. “This time it happened to us.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.