Departments of Public Works

City of Port Huron Basement Flooding Information

The City of Port Huron strives to provide excellent sewer services to our residents; however, despite all of our efforts, basement flooding can occur. We regret if you have experienced a sewage disposal or storm water system event. We strongly urge you to check with your homeowner’s insurance policy to see if coverage is provided.

It is the property owner’s responsibility to use the reasonable precautions to preserve and protect the damaged property and take all necessary steps to reduce further damage. If you feel a health hazard exists, click here for written material (Cleaning up the Mess) to use as a guide in dealing with certain items.

Current Michigan Law Public Act 170 of 1964, as amended by Public Act 222 of 2001, requires that persons seeking compensation for personal injury or property damage, must show that all of the following existed at the time of the event.

• The City of Port Huron at the time of the event owned or operated, or directly or indirectly discharged into, the portion of the sewage disposal system that allegedly caused damage or injury.
• The sewage disposal system of City of Port Huron had a construction, design, maintenance, operation, or repair defect.
• The City of Port Huron knew, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, about the defect and failed to take reasonable steps in a reasonable amount of time to repair, correct or remedy the defect.
• The defect must be 50% or more of the cause of the event and the damage or injury.

You are also required to comply with the written notice requirements of the Act. Any claim you make must be submitted in writing within 45 days after the date the damage or physical injury was discovered or should have been discovered. The written notice must contain your full name, address, telephone number, the address of the affected property, the date of discovery of any property damage or physical injury, and a brief description of the claim. Please use the forms provided by the Utilities Section to report your claim.

Please contact the City of Port Huron's Utilities at 810-984-9770 if you have any further questions.

The  "Cleaning up the Mess" document referred to above is provided in PDF format. If you don't have a PDF viewer, you can click this link to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.