Eight years, dozens of lawyers and hundreds of thousands of documents later, more than 200 northern Nevada flood victims are finally going to be paid for damages suffered when a century-old irrigation canal burst and sent a wall of water into their homes in 2008.
No one was killed or seriously injured but 590 homes in Fernley were flooded when water burst through a 50-foot breach in the canal’s earthen embankment Jan. 5, 2008.
A 2-foot-tall wave swamped the neighborhood and water collected 8 feet deep in some parts of the rural town 30 miles east of Reno. More than a dozen residents were rescued from rooftops by helicopter, while others were taken to safety by boats.
Judy Kroshus, lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit the local irrigation district recently agreed to settle for $18.1 million, and her 2-year-old grandchild were stranded by water “up to our windshield” before her son waded several blocks to rescue them.
