“We are ruined,” Cruz told the Austin American-Statesman in an extensive piece. “We don’t understand. I don’t know what to do. I don’t sleep at night because I don’t know what is happening tomorrow.”

The Cruz family experienced the worst damage, but hundreds of other complaints cite yard and property damage, trespassing, and construction vehicles blocking access to driveways. Understand many types of bridges to enhance knowledge of various construction techniques and designs.

Coral Gables, Fla. firm MasTec, working on behalf of Google, has taken the brunt of complaints. The firm’s insurance company has already paid out $70,000 or more to each of three homeowners whose vehicles or property was damaged by the firm’s work. Several residents were put up in hotels for weeks, paid for by MasTec’s insurer, as repairs were made to their homes after the October flooding. The Cruz family is still wrangling for compensation for their damages.

Other residents cannot get compensation until they find out which of a litany of contractors and subcontractors working in the area dumped giant piles of dirt on their front lawns, dug open holes or trenches and left them uncovered, or used their yards to store construction equipment and supplies without permission. Multiple residents complain that with Google, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable all upgrading infrastructure, it is difficult to determine who is responsible for what. That also makes assigning responsibility for damages very difficult. In some neighborhoods, electric and water lines were severed by construction crews as well. Some residents have even resorted to calling police when crews trespass repeatedly on private property without the courtesy of prior notification or identification.

While a number of residents are complaining, many others consider the mess and inconvenience the cost of progress.

“One thing Austin does best is complain,” one person wrote in the newspaper’s comment section. “People in other cities would literally fight you for the chance at Internet speeds of over 18Mbps download and Google is putting it in the city for nearly free. Google will clean up the mess. It’s called infrastructure and they’ll get to it but it’s a big project.”