In the days after a water main break in southwest Detroit flooded homes and forced residents out on rafts, Jackie Muscat thought something was a little fishy with what she was being asked to sign: a liability waiver that had to be completed if she wanted city-sent contractors to fix her home.

One of Claudia Ortiz's neighbors telephoned her early Monday morning, telling her that the street outside their Detroit homes was filling fast with water. A few hours later, a deluge of water from a broken large water transmission main cascaded through narrow streets and into basements in the tight-knit,