Ruling on Katrina Flooding Favors Homeowners

[groovedaddy]

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge found Wednesday evening that poor maintenance of a major navigation channel by the Army Corps of Engineers led to some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrina. The ruling was a major victory for homeowners who suffered damage in the aftermath of the storm.

It was the first time that the government has been held liable for any of the flooding that inundated the New Orleans area after Aug. 29, 2005, vindicating the long-held contention of many in the region that the flooding was far more than an act of God.

If upheld, the ruling could force the federal government to pay tens of millions of dollars, if not more, to homeowners whose property was lost or damaged by water from the navigation canal, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, known as MR-GO (pronounced Mister Go).

“It is the court’s opinion that the negligence of the corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MR-GO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness,” wrote Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of Federal District Court.

In many ways, the ruling still fell short of what many residents of the area had hoped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/us/19orleans.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Louisiana1976]

1. The ruling may have fallen short, but it's still a step in the right direction--

recognizing New Orleans' flood as a manmade disaster instead of merely natural.

[joeybee12]

2. It's Bush's fault...I'm series...

...there was no leadership at the top, no funding, no oversight...8 years of shit and stuff's gonna happen, although it was only 5 years of mismanagement til katrina.

[Louisiana1976]

3. It's true that Bush cut the Corps' funding in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

[joeybee12]

4. Yup, everything is Bush's fault...it really is...

...when people say it wasn't all Bush's fault, I ask them to point out one instance when it wasn't.