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November 18, 2009 Print Preview

Judge rules Army Corps of Engineers responsible for Katrina damage

by Mel on Nov 18, 2009 at 10:29 PM

Huge.

In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' mismanagement of maintenance of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was directly responsible for flood damage of homes in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. could result in the federal government paying $700,000 in damages to three people and a business in those areas, but also sets the stage for judgments against the govenment for damages by as many as 100,000 other residents, businesses and local governments in those areas who filed claims with the corps after Katrina.

If successful, the damage claims could total billions of dollars.

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2 Responses to “Judge rules Army Corps of Engineers responsible for Katrina damage”

  • J.M. Prince November 19, 2009

    Thanks for this Mel, This is a tremendous & long awaited victory here. And justly so, everyone knew that 'MrGo' would do exactly what it did. Funnel floodwaters into the Lower 9th & other lower lying areas of NOLA. Years later some wheels are finally turning. Much too late for all too many. SSDDD. But good to see finally.

    BTW, I hope this comment will take, I've been having problems with the 'new' Typepad system for 'registration'. It now asks for email, but it does not work that way either. So seemingly every other few months or so a new 'upgraded system' introduced that takes, well another few weeks to properly implement. Where have we seen this before?

    JMP

  • J.M. Prince November 23, 2009

    More on this from Bloomberg Comment here:

    "Billions of Bucks to Flow From Small Sum in South": Ann Woolner

    http://www.bloomberg.com/...601039&sid=aqCpPgqB_0ck

    "

    Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Picture Hurricane Katrina without the broken levees, with minor flooding that quickly drained, with no folks chopping through the attics of New Orleans in desperate hope of rooftop rescue.

    So it might have been if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hadn’t flunked its job so completely and so repeatedly.

    This week U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. ordered the Corps to pay five flood victims $720,000, a pittance compared with what they should get. But the law makes it nearly impossible to win a case against the Corps, so the fact they won anything makes the ruling monumental."

    [More @ Link] JMP