Bend’s City Council got an earful in mid-July when residents whose homes were damaged after a city water main broke lined up to tell their stories.

The homeowners, some of whom saw basements flooded and landscaping washed away, had turned to the city for help after the accident in June. They were understandably upset to discover none was forthcoming and turned to the council for help.

It’s a thorny problem for the city. Its insurance provider is unwilling to pay damages because it says there was no negligence on the city’s part. The water main broke, apparently, because it was old and resting on Central Oregon’s notoriously rocky soil.

And, initially at least, the city was reluctant to dip into its own funds. Officials feared that doing so would set what could become an expensive precedent. Yet the precedent had already been set.

Back in 2011, the city shelled out money for repairs to a home on NW Congress Street after — you guessed it — a water main broke and flooded a nearby dwelling. The cost was well under $100,000. But as it did in June, the insurance company said there was no negligence on the city’s part and declined to pay.

Meanwhile, homeowners and renters living on the edge of the High Desert, as those in Bend and most other communities in the area do, are likely to discover their own insurance policies won’t pay for flood damage. That comes extra, and it can be costly, ranging from about $450 to as much as $1,800 per year if you live in one of the region’s flood zones. Only a tiny percentage of residents have purchased it, insurance agents say.

No one could rightly expect the city to pay for damages had the homeowners somehow been responsible for the problem in the first place. But in this case, as in the earlier one, they weren’t. And while no one argues the city caused the problem, the fact remains that it was a city-owned pipe that broke and city water that did the flooding.

The City Council plans to revisit the problem next month. As it discusses the matter, it should remember doing only what’s legally required may not be the same as doing what is right. In this case, that means paying for repairs homeowners were forced to make after their homes were flooded.