Homeowners in the Timarron Park neighborhood in The Woodlands announced this morning the filing of a lawsuit against The Woodlands Land Development Company, The Howard Hughes Corporation and LJA Engineering, claiming inadequate elevation levels in the neighborhood led to severe flooding during Hurricane Harvey last August.

The lawsuit, titled "Jason Alexander, et al., v The Woodlands Land Development Company L.P., et al.," has been filed on behalf of 485 homeowners who claim flooding has occurred at least five times in the neighborhood and that developers should have known flooding would occur, according to a release.

The homeowners will be represented by Tommy Fibich of Fibich, Leebron, Copeland, & Briggs, of Houston; Muhammad S. Aziz of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Aziz, of Houston; Annie McAdams of Annie McAdams PC, of Houston; Larry G. Dunbar of Dunbar Harder PLLC, of Houston; and James E. Bradley of the Bradley Law Firm, of Houston.

The lawsuit alleges The Woodlands developers built homes in the area at "unreasonably low" elevations and that the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

“Despite knowingly building in a 500-year flood plain, Defendants did not develop and build homes in a manner that put them outside of a 500-year flood plain to reduce the likelihood of flooding," the statement said. "Defendants had no set standards for determining the elevation of a house relative to its geographic location and that location’s risk of flooding. Furthermore, to the extent it did take into account standards for determining the elevation of a home, the standards were based on obsolete, antiquated data instead of newer, more reliable data that was readily available.”

A representative from The Howard Hughes Corporation said the company does not comment on pending or legal matters.